NH-BMT participates in several different types of trials including trials through larger cooperative groups, collaborations with academic-university institutions, pharmaceutical based trials and trials in which the SH-BMT physicians design a study to ask and hopefully answer a certain question.

Cooperative Groups

Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT-CTN)
The BMT-CTN is a co-operative group funded by the National Institutes of Health (NCI) to develop and conduct essential phase II and III trials in hematopoietic cell transplantation. In 2011, NH-BMT was awarded a Core Clinical Center Grant and designation by The BMT-CTN. As such, it is the only BMT center in the state of Georgia to receive this prestigious award. NH-BMT joins only 19 other elite BMT Programs in becoming a primary recipient of this award and status. The award was based upon a competitive application process that recognizes the size and quality of transplant programs and their research programs. With this designation, NH-BMT will be able to:

• Develop national blood and marrow transplant clinical research trials

• Be a major contributor in clinical research that will ultimately translate to new standards in hematopoietic stem cell transplant

• Increase access to those whom transplant would not be possible

• Improve survival outcomes

For more information, please go to https://web.emmes.com/study/bmt2/

Resource for Clinical Investigation (RCI)
The Center for International Bone Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) formed the Resource for Clinical Investigation in Blood and Marrow Transplant (RCI BMT) as a way to provide statistical expertise and data management services for multi-center phase I and II trials. Usually less than 10 centers participate in these phase I & II trials. The results of the Phase I & II RCI studies may pave the way for future, larger phase III studies conducted by the BMT-CTN.

Collaborations with Academic Institutions

Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP): Collaboration with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute
NH-BMT is collaborating with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on an Innovative Research Partnership. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has established a network of sites for clinical trial testing of innovative blood cancer therapies in community oncology settings across the country. This groundbreaking Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP), dana-farber.org/BCRP, will bring clinical trials closer to where patients live and help to address one of the primary bottlenecks in the development of new cancer therapies: the need for more patients to take part in trials. NH-BMT is one of ten sites who have been selected to participate in this prestigious partnership.

LLS will be investing $1,050,000 in this three-year project. “This novel partnership between Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and LLS supports the mission of both organizations – to bring cutting-edge clinical research to a wider spectrum of patients with blood cancers today in order to change the paradigms of clinical care for patients tomorrow,” said Blood Cancer Research Program Co-Director Robert Soiffer, M.D., who is the chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at Dana-Farber. “The BCRP consortium will provide the opportunity for the Division of Hematologic Malignancies to extend clinical research trials to patients who are outside our regional area and do not have the capacity to come to Dana-Farber.”

Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials
NH-BMT physicians actively write and conduct their own research studies. This type of study is called an Investigator Initiated Clinical Trial. Our initiatives and collaborations with other NCI designated comprehensive cancer centers, which include Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California at San Diego, Moores Medical Center and Moffett Cancer Center, allow us to provide patients with access to the most promising new drugs, biologics, and cellular therapies.