Enrollment on the Childhood Cancer Research Network (CCRN) of the Children s Oncology Group

Purpose

Background:

- The Children s Oncology Group has established a research network, the Childhood Cancer Research Network (CCRN), to collect information about children with cancer and other conditions that are benign but involve abnormal cell growth in order to help doctors and scientists better understand childhood cancer. The CCRN's goal is to collect clinical information about every child diagnosed with cancer and similar conditions in the United States and Canada, to allow researchers to study patterns, characteristics, and causes of childhood cancer. The information can also help researchers study the causes of childhood cancer. To expand the CCRN, parents of children who have been diagnosed with cancer will be asked to provide information about themselves and their child for research purposes.

Objectives:

• To obtain informed consent from parents (and the child, when appropriate) of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults newly diagnosed with cancer to enter their names and certain information concerning their child into the Childhood Cancer Research Network.
• To obtain informed consent from parents (and the child, when appropriate) of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults newly diagnosed with cancer for permission to be contacted in the future to consider participating in non-therapeutic and prevention research studies involving the parents and/or the child.

Eligibility:

- Parents of children who have been seen at or treated by a hospital that is a member of the Children s Oncology Group.

Design:

• Parents will provide permission to have personal information sent from their child s hospital to the CCRN, including the child and parents' names; child's gender, birth date, race, and ethnicity; information about the disease; and the treating institution.
• Parents will also give permission for CCRN to contact the diagnostic laboratory to obtain specific information about the tumor or cancer cells.
• Parents will be asked if they are willing to be contacted in the future to consider participating in CCRN research studies, and will provide contact information (name, home address, and telephone number) to be entered in the CCRN.
• Parents or patients who change their minds about having information available in the CCRN can ask the treatment institution to restrict access to the identifying information. Parents or patients who refuse to have information included in the CCRN or be contacted in the future will still be able to enter clinical cancer research studies.

Category

• Cancers and Other Neoplasms
• Child Health