PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT John H. Stroger Jr, Hospital of Cook County (SHCC) in Chicago, Illinois is the major tertiary care site for the Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS). The majority of cancer cases are from minority-underserved populations and are predominantly African American. The SHCC MU NCORP plans to continue to strengthen and improve coordinated care and clinical research for its minority population through participation in NCTN programs. Dr. Thomas E. Lad will continue as Principal Investigator (PI). The SHCC MU-NCORP will Continue to foster relationships with current cancer research bases to facilitate broad and improved participation in cancer control, prevention, and care delivery research for breast, lung, prostate, gastrointestinal, brain, hematologic, head and neck, and gynecologic cancers; facilitate transfer of state-of-the- are quality oncology care and new technology to minority-underserved populations in their own communities, through participation in NCI-approved clinical trials; focus on prevention, control and survivorship as methods for reducing cancer incidence, morbidity and mortality; encourage multidisciplinary cancer care and integrated research at the local level; participate in cancer care delivery research which accrue to trials relevant to process improvement and implementation activities by coordinating the existing infrastructural features of the Cook County Health & Hospitals System and CountyCare's Managed Care Community Network; continue to be a source of annotated tissue and blood samples for translational research projects such as the Early Onset Malignancy Initiative and the Patient Derived Xenograft project; continue scientific activity at the research base level by chairing an ECOG group-wide cancer control study concerning reproductive issues of female cancer patients that was conceived, designed, and initiated by the SHCC MU NCORP; and increase participation in symptom science research.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The purpose of this proposal is the renew the Minority-Underserved NCI Oncology Research Program at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County in Chicago. The continuation of this valuable program is critically important to our minority patient population as it offers access to cancer care strategies that would not otherwise be available at our safety-net institution. It also contributes to the diversity of the study population in the NCTN.