Increasing access to cancer trials in Minnesota (InACT-MN)

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT In collaboration with the Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota, Britt Erickson, MD, has developed a research strategy that will leverage her skills in clinical trial design and execution, as well as her experience as a mentor and educator, to improve access to NCI clinical trials within the Masonic Cancer Center and throughout greater Minnesota. She will open and enroll to more NCI prevention and therapeutic trials in gynecologic oncology. She will collaborate with other disease site leaders and cooperative group principal investigators in order to prioritize trials with the highest chances for success at the University of Minnesota. She will be the community clinical trial liaison for the Masonic Cancer Center, opening gynecologic oncology specific NCI trials at community sites and mentoring community oncologists in the process of clinical trial leadership and accrual. This community extension will be done through the M Health Fairview Cancer Service Line, a novel clinical entity established in 2019 as a result of combining efforts between the University of Minnesota and Fairview, a non- profit healthcare delivery service. The M Health Fairview Cancer Service Line includes seven community sites throughout the Minneapolis/St Paul metropolitan area and presents an opportunity to break down traditional barriers between academic and community medicine, uniting with a common vision of increasing access to therapeutic clinical trials. The Cancer Service Line has also extended to two underserved sites in rural central Minnesota with a substantial Native American population and historically limited clinical trial access. At these locations—working with community oncologists, existing NCORP infrastructure, and pre-existing collaborations through the Minnesota Cancer Clinical Trials Network (a state funded network since 2017, housed at the University of Minnesota)—Dr. Erickson will be integral to the mission of expanding NCI clinical trial access to all Minnesotans. Dr. Erickson’s experience and current involvement locally and nationally in NCI clinical trial work make her an ideal candidate for the proposed plan. In addition to expanding trial availability, she will continue her local and national service. This includes serving as a member of the Cancer Protocol Review Committee and as co-chair of the Gynecologic Oncology Interdisciplinary Site Committee within the Masonic Cancer Center. It also involves serving as a core member of the Uterine Corpus Committee and Cancer Prevention and Control Committee of NRG oncology. She will also continue her work as the national PI of the phase II DCP trial of exemestane in endometrial cancer (UWI-2016-08-01) and national PI of a new cooperative group study, NRG- GY026, which is exploring the role of HER2 directed therapy in HER2 positive endometrial cancer, set to open in June of 2022 with planned accrual of 525 patients.