Our History

MVTCP 20-Year Impact

1999:

2001:

• The oncology clinical trials at MMC established during this period significantly enhanced the recruitment of African Americans into national oncology trials, transforming the Robert Hardy Oncology Clinic into an Oncology Clinical Trials Center.
• The grant also successfully supported the establishment of an Epidemiology/Biostatistics Core.

2006:

• During this period, the cancer tissue core was developed for the collection and storage of cancer tissues from African Americans and members of other racial/ethnic minorities.

2011:

• TSU joined the partnership to effectively engage in community outreach program for cancer prevention and to increase undergraduate cancer research.
• Funding supported expansion of the education core to include medical, doctoral, masters and undergraduate students.

2016:

• The Partnership continued expansion of the shared resources cores (Clinical Trials, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Translational Pathology).
• The revitalized Planning and Evaluation Core provided the ability to better track various Partnership data points.

2021:

• The Clinical Trials Shared Resource Core was successfully transitioned to incorporate population research, and thus renamed the Population Research And Clinical Trials In Cancer Equity (PRACTICE) Shared Resource Core.
• Funding supports:
  • 28 undergraduate students;
  • summer cancer research training for 28 medical students;
  • 15 African American students who trained in MVTCP-supported labs received their doctoral degrees from MMC Biochemistry and Cancer Biology programs;
  • 24 minority graduate students in the Program of Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University.
• Expansion of the Community Outreach Core (COC): In collaboration with the Research Education Core (REC), the COC will be developing a program for students at VUMC, MMC and TSU interested in community outreach and bringing basic, clinical and public health education to communities.
• The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource Core is applying innovative approaches to study design, data collection, and statistical and bioinformatic analysis. This includes the expansion of office hours and support of the analysis of ‘big data’.
• The Translational Pathology Shared Resource Core will expand services to incorporate liquid biopsy expertise from VICC and provide a rich source of data and samples for MVTCP investigators for subsequent grant submissions.
• The Partnership successfully competed for renewed funding in January.