By Augusto C. Ochoa, MD

Voting Member, ECOG-ACRIN Principal Investigator Committee
and
Deputy Director, LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center

Founded in 2018, the Gulf South Minority Underserved Clinical Trials Network (Gulf South NCORP) is part of a National Cancer Institute-funded program designed to expand access to cutting-edge clinical trials for all cancer patients in the region.  The Gulf South NCORP is a collaborative network of hospitals and physicians across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama working to provide convenient access to the latest cancer prevention and treatment studies. It is the first multi-institutional clinical trial consortium in the region, representing a groundbreaking partnership among traditionally competing hospitals and academic centers. 

Our experienced network includes four leading health care and research institutions—Louisiana State University/LSU Health New Orleans, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Ochsner Health, and LSU Health Shreveport—working together to improve patient outcomes through expanded clinical trial access, outreach, and education. Through additional partnerships with other health providers across the region, the program now reaches over 50 locations, more than doubling the number of sites offering clinical trials in the Gulf South, giving more patients and physicians access to cutting-edge cancer treatments.

The Gulf South NCORP is nationally recognized and has received awards from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for high accrual of a diverse patient population. We enroll over 1,500 patients in trials each year, and our network serves a broad population, from medically underserved rural regions to urban communities. Through our NCORP, these patients can participate in a variety of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship clinical trials, in addition to cancer care delivery studies.

A recent initiative led by the Gulf South Clinical Trials Network sought to remove a major barrier to clinical trial participation in community settings: namely the shortage of trained research nurses. Eileen Mederos, RN (pictured), the clinical trials network manager at LSU Health New Orleans and the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center, developed an innovative solution—the Virtual Research Nurse (VRN) Program. This program connects specialized research nurses with oncologists in community practices through virtual platforms. The nurses provide critical support by helping oncologists identify clinical trials, as well as screening and identifying eligible patients. The nurses also assist with patient enrollment, informed consent, and coordinating trial programming and treatment plans. The VRN Program has been so impactful that it attracted the attention of the NCI, which has modeled its pilot Virtual Clinical Trials Office after the program.

The Gulf South NCORP has been an active member of ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) since our formation in 2018, though Louisiana State University/LSU Health New Orleans has participated in the Group since 1986. Several members of our leadership and team are key to our success in enrolling patients in trials. Examples of recent contributions to ECOG-ACRIN include: 

• The Gulf South NCORP has made major contributions in the enrollment of patients into ECOG-ACRIN studies such as the Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (TMIST)
• Brooke Morrell, MD and Mignone Morrell, MD (who happen to be cousins), enrolled more than 400 patients in TMIST in 2024-2025 year
• Jerry McLarty, PhD and Gary Burton, MD enrolled 260 patients in TMIST during the same period

We are committed to bringing access to the latest in cancer studies and treatments to our patients where they live. We look forward to continuing to improve health care gaps in our region and working with ECOG-ACRIN to open additional cutting-edge trials.