Leading US Phase I Cancer Center Opens Site In Madrid, Spain - START Center For Cancer Care

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 06 Oct 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Texas-based START Center for Cancer Care today announced the establishment of a new global cancer research network, headquartered in San Antonio, that will make possible a dedicated, round-the- clock network of START Centers dedicated to Phase I cancer clinical trials, with the single-minded objective to accelerate the implementation of new anticancer therapies from discovery. START-Madrid represents the network's first European satellite location, and the first of several global satellite collaborations currently being planned by START. The new START Center will be located in the Hospital de Madrid Norte Sanchinarro, Centro Integral Oncológico Clara Campal (CIOCC) and will offer the most innovative Phase I cancer clinical trials program available in Spain's capital city of six million.

Hospital de Madrid Norte Sanchinarro is a state of the art hospital, equipped with 228 beds, 13 operating rooms, and two intensive care units.

Opened in September of last year, the CIOCC is the first and only comprehensive cancer center in Spain to operate within a general hospital. It is equipped with the latest technology and the most highly trained cancer specialists across all medical disciplines including specialized cancer genetic assessment and counseling programs. The cancer center has 28 hospital rooms expandable to 70, plus an outpatient care room with four beds and is currently seeing 150-200 new patients per month.

The addition of START-Madrid will significantly enhance the cancer research program in Spain's capital city and allow for high quality Phase I studies to be conducted in Madrid - either alone, or in collaboration with the START center in San Antonio.

START-San Antonio is located in the heart of the South Texas Medical Center and directs clinical trials of novel anticancer agents using a high quality and innovative information technology infrastructure to ensure accurate and rapid clinical trials in a setting that emphasizes personalized and compassionate clinical care. START is affiliated with South Texas Oncology and Hematology and its physicians are nationally recognized as thought leaders in cancer research and drug development.

Dr. Anthony Tolcher, medical director for START and the architect of the new network, said of today's news, "Our sole mission is to accelerate the development of new therapies for the treatment and eventual cure of cancer by taking the skills and expertise that has been created here and expanding it to the rest of the world." He added, "We have recruited outstanding physicians, who initially trained with us several years ago and have gone on to become, in their own right, leaders in their field and see the vision of an international program to accelerate drug development."

Tolcher said, "When we are turning out the lights in one START location of our global network, our colleagues will be getting ready to start their day and will be able to pick up right where we left off. As far as we know, this is the first time a global network of this kind has been created the sole purpose of accelerating the conduct of Phase I clinical trials and aimed to hasten the development of new anti-cancer drugs."

Tolcher also noted that one of the most important elements is that START-Madrid, in both the clinical and research areas, "will operate according to the same exceptional standards of quality that has made START one of the world's premier sites for developing innovative oncology drugs."



About Start-Madrid's Physicians

The Start-Madrid oncology team will be comprised of eight highly trained physicians and staff, all with extensive experience in Phase 1 clinical trials research.

Dr. Manuel Hidalgo, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Centro Integral Oncológico Clara Campal and will head up the START-Madrid unit. He will be joined by Dr. Emiliano Calvo and Dr. Ignacio Duran. Both Calvo and Hidalgo, studied in San Antonio, with Dr. Tolcher at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center's Institute for Drug Development.

Dr. Hidalgo is currently associate professor of oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is considered a leading researcher in the field of targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer in patients with solid tumors. His research interest focuses on the development of novel anticancer agents for patients with gastrointestinal cancer by measuring target receptor and molecular anomalies, as well as analyzing biological activity in the tumor and normal tissues of patients treated with specific therapies. He will be relocating to Madrid in December to take on a full time position.

Dr. Hidalgo has published over 140 papers in prestigious cancer journals as well as numerous chapters in important textbooks. He has received numerous awards including an AACR Young Investigator Award, an NCI-EORTC fellowship and an ASCO Career Development Award. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research and is a senior editor for Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Dr. Hidalgo chairs the Pancreatic Cancer Research Team, a nonprofit organization focused on clinical trials in pancreatic cancer and is also a member of the NCI Developmental Therapeutics Study Section.

Dr. Emiliano Calvo, M.D., Ph.D., has been one of the leaders of the Phase I clinical trials program in Barcelona, Spain for the past several years, and most recently served as co-director of the Phase I Unit, and director of the Genitourinary Tumors and Sarcoma Area at the Hospital Vall d'Hebron, in Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Calvo will serve as director of clinical research Phase I Trials Unit for START Madrid. He said, "Madrid is an economically and culturally strong European city that has all the ingredients to support the kind of excellent program established by START in San Antonio, including a large population of around 6 million people who will greatly benefit from this kind of excellent Phase I program."

Dr. Ignacio Durán, M.D., Ph.D., will serve as leader of the genitourinary program and co-director of the Phase I program at CCIOC. Durán most recently served as clinical research fellow at Drug Development Program of Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto. Canada, and trained with Dr. Malcolm Moore and Lillian Sui. Dr. Sui had earlier trained at the IDD CTRC.

START-San Antonio has 40 open Phase I trials of some of the most innovative new anticancer agents. Patients wishing to enroll in a trial should call (210) 593-5265.

For more information about the cancer center or the Phase I program, visit http://www.ciocc.es or http://www.startthecure.com.

For more information about Hospital de Madrid Norte Sanchinarro , visit http://www.hospitaldemadrid.com.

Hospital de Madrid Norte Sanchinarro