Mercy Research is making proton beam clinical trials available to Mercy patients through a membership with Proton Collaborative Group (PCG). PCG is a group of more than 30 treatment centers across the country committed to improving outcomes for cancer patients and advancing the role of proton beam therapy.
Mercy’s PCG membership includes access to a proton therapy registry, which helps evaluate disease process and treatment, as well as trials for various breast, pancreas, prostate and lung cancers.
“PCG provides our patients greater opportunity and access to clinical trials using proton beam therapy, which for many of them makes this treatment possible, while at the same time helping improve future cancer treatment,” said Dr. Amit Roy, principal investigator for the proton beam registry and PCG trials at Mercy St. Louis. “In addition, the care teams will have access to important data to help shape future treatment.”
The Mercy Proton Therapy Center opened in July 2022 at Mercy Hospital St. Louis, becoming one of only 43 centers in the United States. Radiation with proton therapy precisely targets cancer tumors, reducing and eliminating unwanted radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. Mercy Research hired a dedicated research specialty coordinator for all proton therapy trials and proton registry data entry.
“We are delighted to have Mercy as a member of PCG and to share their expertise and perspective on the field of proton therapy,” said Jillian Plochocki, PCG executive director. “Mercy’s contribution to the largest proton therapy registry in the world and to critical proton therapy clinical trials will help pave the way to better treatment, improved clinical outcomes and enhanced quality of life for those diagnosed with cancer.”
“New trials with PCG will complement Mercy Research’s existing portfolio of National Cancer Institute-sponsored trials for proton beam therapy,” said Dr. Laurie Marshall-Nightengale, Mercy director of oncology research and Mercy's representative on the PCG executive council. The PCG executive council provides oversight for PCG committees, protocol development and approvals, clinical policies and procedures and organizational strategy implementation.
PCG was founded in 2009 by a group of radiation oncologists whose primary mission was to improve the survival outcomes of cancer patients and their quality of life. These oncologists strongly believed that collaborating to develop new research protocols and sharing those results across multiple treatment centers would best serve their mission.
