Children's Oncology Group
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The '''Children's Oncology Group (COG)''' is a [[worldwide]] [[clinical trial]] cooperative group supported by the [[National Cancer Institute]] (NCI) and fashioned with the mission of studying childhood [[cancers]]. It was formed in [[2000]] with the merging of four independent cooperative groups; the [[Children's Cancer Study Group]] (CCG), [[Pediatric Oncology Group]] (POG), [[Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group]] (IRS), and the [[National Wilms Tumor Study Group]] (NWTS). This merger has seen its fair share of problems, especially with regard to integrating the various [[databases]] associated with each individual cooperative group. One such [[initiative]] to consolidate these databases involves [[caBIG]] or the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, which is guided and supported by the NCI in [[Bethesda, Maryland]].
[[Image: COG_logo.gif|thumb|right|200px|Children's Oncology Group]]
==Quality Assurance==
The Children's Oncology Group has all of its protocol driven cases reviewed at the [[Quality Assurance Review Center]] (QARC). As mandated by the [[National Cancer Institute]] (NCI), every [[radiotherapy]] department participating in a COG study must submit their data to QARC for review. QARC is located in [[Providence, Rhode Island]] and reviews thousands of cases per year. The center was founded in [[1977]] as a not-for-profit healthcare organization designed to provide quality assurance for [[CALGB]] studies. Radiotherapy data from around one-thousand [[hospitals]] in both the [[United States]] and abroad is reviewed and archived at QARC.
Another center for quality assurance is the [[Radiological Physics Center]] (RPC) in [[Houston, Texas]]. The primary responsibility of the RPC is to assure the [[National Cancer Institute]] (NCI) and its cooperative groups like COG that all participating institutions are following the guidelines set-forth for the physics-related aspects of radiotherapy. Established in [[1968]], the RPC has consistently received funding from the NCI in order to perform the aforementioned mission.
==External links==
*[http://www.childrensoncologygroup.org Children's Oncology Group] - website
*[http://www.curesearch.org/ CureSearch] - COG and National Childhood Cancer Foundation website with trial and educational information
*[http://www.qarc.org/ Quality Assurance Review Center]
*[http://rpc.mdanderson.org/ Radiological Physics Center]
*[http://www.cancer.gov/ National Cancer Institute]
*[http://www.nih.gov/ National Institutes of Health]
*[http://www.cabig.cancer.gov/ caBIG]
*[http://spnl.stanford.edu/disorders/pediatric_cancer.htm Stanford research on cancer related learning problems]
[[Category: Cancer organizations]]
[[Category: Medical research institutes]]
[[Category: Oncology]]
[[Category: Pediatrics]]