KANSAS CITY (AP) - A health care system based in Kansas City has signed an agreement with Washington University in St. Louis to give patients access to clinical trials through the school's National Cancer Institute-supported research.
The agreement between St. Luke's Health System and the university's Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center will take effect June 1. Patients should start having access to trials by late summer, the Kansas City Star reported.
The partnership will allow patients to access about 175 trials of investigational treatments and 35 other population health studies run by Siteman while still under the care of their local St. Luke's doctors, according to Timothy Pluard, medical director at St. Luke's Cancer Institute.
Pluard noted in terms of NCI-sponsored clinical trials, the program will have access to all the clinical trials at the University of Kansas Health System, also an NCI-designated cancer center nearby in Kansas City, Kansas.
Kay Hawes, spokeswoman for the University of Kansas Cancer Center, noted being an NCI-designated center is different from being a satellite clinic of a center.
"Many trials are reserved for NCI facilities with special expertise, such as promising trials in immunotherapy," she said. "Many are not available to satellite clinics because of the intensity of the trials and the vulnerability of the patients involved."
National Cancer Institute spokeswoman Shannon Hatch said each program will offer some treatments the other doesn't provide.
"It's not as if every NCI-designated cancer center is running the exact same trials," she said.
Cancer centers designated by the institute focus on a combination of laboratory research, population health and clinical research.