CureSearch COG Pioneering Research
CureSearch is considered the premier childhood cancer research organization in the world. CureSearch Children’s Oncology Group (COG) has treated more children with cancer than any other organization in history and has been responsible for many of the improvements in the treatment and cure rates during the past 40 years. But its most lasting legacy may be in developing a model of cooperative research.
Historic Strides
Forty years ago, cancer was virtually a death sentence for a child. With so many different types of childhood cancer, no single hospital saw enough patients at one time who were similar enough to allow for effective research. In 1956, a group of experts at several hospitals began to pool their expertise and ideas, patient populations and results in treating children with leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer.
This consortium was the nation’s first cooperative research group, a model that has since become the standard for medical research of all kinds.
The COG now consists of thousands of doctors, nurses and other experts who treat children with cancer, as well as scientists who discover new treatments in the laboratory. The group is made up of over 200 top medical institutions across the United States and beyond.
Each COG institution has a multidisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, basic scientists and other specialists with the skills needed for state-of-the-art diagnosis, treatment, care and investigation of childhood cancer.
How Cooperative Research Works
COG conducts over 150 concurrent studies covering all the principal cancers of infants, children and adolescents. Over 40,000 patients are being treated according to COG research protocols. These clinical trials compare the best available treatment to one or more experimental treatments, which are carefully developed with the goal of yielding even better results.
When a child is treated on a COG protocol, all the information about the patient’s diagnosis, treatment and results is sent to the Group Operations Center. There all the data are collected and analyzed, and findings are published for the entire membership.
In addition to these data, tissue samples and cell lines may be collected and stored for the use of group members in current and future research. The group also maintains laboratories essential to the diagnosis, treatment and research of childhood cancers.
Research findings are shared with the entire membership through ongoing communication, publications and meetings. The group then builds on this knowledge to determine the next steps for research.
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