The ASCO Cancer Foundation®, with support of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), has awarded the Comparative Effectiveness Research Professorship (CERP) in Breast Cancer to ­Patricia A. Ganz, MD, Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). This award is given to outstanding researchers who have made significant strides in their field and are dedicated to mentoring the next generation of researchers.

This 5-year, $500,000 grant will fund her work, "Improving Outcomes for Breast Cancer Survivors: Measuring the Comparative Effectiveness of Survivorship Care Programs within the UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence." Dr. Ganz and her two mentees, a doctoral student and an early-career physician scientist, will examine how well survivorship program interventions align with ASCO's recommendations for breast cancer surveillance.

Real-world Outcomes

By focusing on creating and combining evidence that compares the benefits and risks of alternative treatment methods to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor a clinical condition to improve care, comparative effectiveness research examines outcomes in a real-world setting. Randomized clinical trials, however, examine the efficacy of treatment under rigorous and exacting controls. Comparative effectiveness research studies may compare similar competing treatments, different therapeutic approaches, or new interventions with usual care or best practices, Dr. Ganz noted.

This type of research also may involve clinical- and population-level registries, outcome data derived from electronic health records, and clinical decision modeling (including cost-effectiveness analyses). Comparative effectiveness is being identified as an important part of oncology research, and Dr. Ganz believes it essential that clinical oncology play an active role in defining key clinical questions, determining relevant comparative therapeutic strategies, and selecting appropriate outcomes for use in comparative effectiveness research in oncology. "Comparative effectiveness research is important in helping ensure that people with cancer receive the most appropriate therapy," stated Joseph Bailes, MD, Past-Chair of The ASCO Cancer Foundation Board of Directors.

Dr. Ganz will strive to assist practitioners, patients, and families in making informed decisions to improve health care with her research. "The research planned will examine the quality of post-treatment surveillance and survivorship care-using ASCO guidelines as the benchmark-by looking at outcomes before and after the survivorship care programs were introduced."

Diverse Care Settings

The UCLA-LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence was established in 2006 with funding from the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The Center includes four diverse care settings:

• a matrix-type, NCI-designated
• comprehensive cancer center
• a university-affiliated public hospital
• a community hospital
• a large, managed-care medical group

Breast cancer survivors and patients undergoing treatment are the focus and recipients of improved survivorship care in each of these settings.

"What we learn from these real-world experiences can translate into knowledge about how best to deliver care for patients," Dr. Ganz noted. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to carry out this work and honored to be selected by The ASCO Cancer Foundation." ■

© 2010. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All Rights Reserved.