Supporting clinical correlative research
The Clinical Treatment Unit and the Clinical Trials Processing Laboratory (CTU/CTPL) Shared Resources provide support to investigators conducting phase I and phase II clinical translational research studies at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.
The CTU is an outpatient, phase I clinical trial unit at The James that treats patients who require intense monitoring or complex correlative sample collection and processing. The CTPL specializes in procuringc orrelative research specimens from the CTU and from the hospital’s inpatient care areas, and processing, storing and shipping them to outside laboratories.
“By working with the CTU and CTLP, clinical investigators can improve protocol compliance by freeing up research nurses and coordinators to focus on other protocol-related activities,” says director Larry J. Schaaf, PhD, an adjunct professor in The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy who has more than 20 years experience conducting and analyzing phase I and phase II clinical correlative trials.
“In addition, all of our staff are trained in protocol specimen requirements.”
Between January 2004 and December 2008, the laboratory procured 26,634 specimens. During 2008, the CTU/CTPL activities included the following:
- Supporting 82 therapeutic trials
- Procuring 7,983 specimens
- Shipping 1,108 sample sets, all according to IATA Dangerous Goods and DOT regulations