Pediatric Oncology Group 3172897 224839610 2008-07-10T17:25:45Z FitzColinGerald 3225475 The '''Pediatric Oncology Group (POG)''' was a [[United States|U.S.]] and [[Canada|Canadian]] [[clinical trial]] cooperative group created with the mission of studying childhood [[cancers]]. It was formed by the merger of the pediatric divisions of two other cooperative groups, the [[Southwest Oncology Group]] (SWOG) and the [[CALGB]]. In [[2000]], POG merged with several other pediatric cooperative groups to form the [[Children's Oncology Group]] (COG). 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 [[National Cancer Institute]] (NCI) in [[Bethesda, Maryland]]. ==Quality Assurance== The Pediatric Oncology Group used to have all of its protocol driven cases reviewed at the [[Quality Assurance Review Center]] (QARC). As formerly mandated by the [[National Cancer Institute]] (NCI), every [[radiotherapy]] department participating in a POG study used to have to 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 initially 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 former cooperative group POG that all participating institutions were 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.pogo.ca Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario] - A childhood cancer research group *[http://www.cabig.cancer.gov/ caBIG] *[http://www.cancer.gov/ National Cancer Institute] *[http://www.nih.gov/ National Institutes of Health] *[http://www.qarc.org/ Quality Assurance Review Center] *[http://www.rpc.mdanderson/ Radiological Physics Center] *[http://spnl.stanford.edu/disorders/pediatric_cancer.htm Stanford: learning problems in children with cancer] [[Category: Cancer organizations]] [[Category: Medical research institutes]] [[Category: Pediatrics]]