Clinical Corner
Clinical Research Office’s intern program featured in ACRP
University’s Intern Program Counters Turnover Problems with Homegrown Talent
Written by Michael Causey, this blog originally appeared on the Association of Clinical Research Professionals website.
Frustrated by chronic turnover and the uneven quality of available entry-level candidates, the folks at the University of Florida (UF) Health Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office took matters into their own hands by launching what’s turned out to be a successful intern-to-hire program.
“We wanted to find people who were excited about the prospect of doing research, and not just looking for a job,” says Leslie Pettiford, R.N., MS, OCN, CCRC, assistant director for study coordination and data management at UF.
After setting up the program—complete with strong educational modules for important clinical trial topics, including informed consent, ethics, and good clinical practices—they issued their first call for interns in October 2018. After going through more than a dozen applications, they selected the first two interns who hit the ground running January 2019.
The program has been an almost immediate success, Pettiford says. In fact, the first two interns hired stayed on with full-time jobs after the program ended. The UF team has since brought on four more interns who are active in learning about clinical research as they contribute to projects at the facility.
The intern program is helping UF stand out as an employer of choice in the market. “Around the time of my graduation, I was still looking for a way to gain experience during my upcoming gap year before applying to medical school,” says former intern and now clinical research associate Justin Lorentzen, BHS. “I came across the internship application on the University of Florida’s ‘Careers at UF’ website and thought the description of the internship is exactly what I was looking for: exposure to clinical research, patient contact, and learning about a complex field of medicine such as oncology.”
To read the rest of the blog, click here.
Clinical Trial Highlight: Refractory Cancers
This issue of the UFHCC Connection highlights clinical trials currently recruiting patients with refractory malignancies.
Questions about how to send a patient? Please contact the Clinical Trials Office at cancer-center@ufl.edu or 352.273.8675
KRAS/NRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA Wild-Type Metastatic Colorectal Cancer treatment based on HER2 Status
This is a phase II trial to examine the efficacy of neratinib plus trastuzumab or neratinib plus cetuximab in patients with “quadruple wild-type” (all RAS/NRAS/BRAF/PIK3CA wild-type) metastatic colorectal cancer based on HER2 status (amplified, non-amplified [wild-type] or mutated). Patients must have confirmed quadruple wild-type (WT) genotype. HER2 status will be confirmed centrally. Treatment with or without prior EGFR therapies is allowed. Primary endpoint is progression free survival.
Principal Investigator: Thomas George, M.D., cell: 352.339.6672
This open-label dose escalation and dose expansion study tests a new liposomal Annamycin as a single agent for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML after standard induction therapy. Patients cannot have prior anthracycline cumulative dose >551 mg/m2 or the daunorubicin equivalent which is the recommended non-cardiotoxic level.
Principal Investigator: Jack Hsu, M.D., cell: 352.672.0704
This Phase 1/2 non-randomized, open-label study is testing the orally administered AMG 510 in subjects with KRAS p.G12C mutant advanced solid tumors. Cohorts include NSCLC, CRC and other tumors. Treatment may include AMG 510 as monotherapy or in combination with pembrolizumab depending on the phase of the study at the time of subject enrollment. KRAS p.G12C mutation must be established through CLIA-approved molecular testing of the tumor, but additional biopsies for confirmatory testing may be required.
Principal Investigator: Thomas George, M.D., cell: 352.339.6672
This is an investigator-initiated clinical trial that is based on the discovery of the importance of the Metnase complex in repairing chemotherapy-related DNA damage in leukemia. Ciprofloxacin has been identified as a metnase inhibitor that chemosensitizes leukemic myeloblasts to etoposide chemotherapy. The primary aims are to determine the maximum tolerated dose of ciprofloxacin that can be given in combination with a fixed dose of etoposide and determine the efficacy of the combination treatment in adults with resistant AML.
Principal Investigator: Randy Brown, M.D., cell: 859.221.6828