The Inspiring Story of Turkish Oncologist Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sıtkı Çopur, Who Is Making a Difference in America

A medical oncologist in the United States, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sıtkı Çopur, through 23 years of effort, increased the proportion of patients in Nebraska, where he works, participating in clinical trials from around %3 to around %30 and achieved great success as the physician leading the team enrolling the most patients in clinical trials . Dr. Sıtkı Çopur, whose efforts have been recognized with numerous awards, is in a sense explaining the importance of evidence-based medicine to the West, the center of evidence-based modern medicine...

Dr. Sıtkı Çopur graduated from Hacettepe Medical School in 1982. After military and compulsory service, he trained in internal medicine at Hacettepe between 1985-89, but was accepted to America in 1989 before receiving his specialty qualification. He later completed internal medicine training in Chicago in the United States and oncology training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Clinical trials, are medical scientific experiments involving people. Today, patients live longer thanks to successful cancer treatments resulting from previous clinical trials. Through clinical trials, doctors determine whether new treatments are safe and effective and whether they work better than existing treatments. Clinical trials also help us find new ways to prevent cancer and achieve early diagnosis . They help us improve, during and after treatment, people's quality of life . When you participate in a clinical trial, knowledge about cancer increases, and you also help improve cancer care for future patients. Clinical trials are essential for progress in cancer medicine.

"I live to conquer cancer..."

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of government-funded cancer research, asked oncology professionals, "Why do you live to conquer cancer?" One of the esteemed oncologists whose views ASCO sought was Dr. Mehmet Sıtkı Çopur.

The following text is a translation of Dr. Sıtkı Çopur's interview with ASCO about cancer clinical trials.

I am a medical oncologist, and while closely managing my patients' treatment, I live to conquer cancer through clinical trials that provide access to the latest and most promising developments.

After completing my oncology fellowship at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1995, I came to CHI Health St Francis, a rural community hospital in Nebraska, and established a comprehensive cancer program. The most difficult part of my 23-year journey was building a clinical trial infrastructure at this rural hospital. My first task was to establish an academic relationship with the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Nebraska's largest city, 150 miles to the east. This relationship helped me begin building the necessary clinical trial infrastructure and provided access to NCI Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) clinical trials.

An important component of defeating cancer is community-based cancer research. Unfortunately, cancer clinical trials are often available at academic centers in large cities, making it difficult for patients in small local and rural communities to participate. As a medical oncologist, I knew that my participation in cancer prevention and treatment clinical trials would be essential to facilitate applying innovations to the real-world community. I did my best to enroll my rural Nebraska patients in high-quality NCI clinical trials. Through NCI clinical trials, my patients here in rural Nebraska were able to access many advanced treatment options before they were approved as standard care.

In 2007, NCI launched the National Community Cancer Centers Pilot (NCCCP) program. My cancer program at the hospital where I work was among the first 16 pilot sites for this NCI grant. NCCCP, a public-private partnership, improved the quality of our cancer care services by expanding our clinical trial infrastructure. Throughout the seven-year NCCCP (2007-2014), I continued to live to conquer cancer every day alongside my patients who defeated cancer by participating in clinical trials.

Then, in 2014, came the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), which aligned and replaced the previous two NCI programs (CCOP and NCCCP). This new NCI initiative not only supported cancer control / prevention, treatment and early diagnosis research but also expanded research into a new dimension by including cancer care delivery research. Because of my cancer program's previous successful clinical trial performance, we were selected as one of 35 sites for this new NCI grant. Now, in the fourth year of our NCORP grant, I continue to live to conquer cancer every day by enrolling my rural Nebraska patients in high-quality NCI cancer control / prevention, cancer treatment and cancer care research.

20 years ago, the national clinical trial participation rate was a dismal %3, whereas today I have been able to enroll %10 to %33 of my cancer patients in high-quality NCI clinical trials. I strive to fight cancer every day, and my team and I have received numerous awards: an ASCO Community Oncology Research Grant in 2010, two ASCO Clinical Trial Participation Awards in 2010 and 2016, an NCCCP Recognition Award in 2012, and an NCORP Gold Certificate of Excellence for high clinical trial participation and performance in 2017.

Having most of our patients participate in high-quality clinical trials is the only way to defeat cancer. With the continuing, promising and supportive efforts of NCI and ASCO, I will keep looking for ways to improve the currently unacceptably low clinical trial participation rate in the community setting and continue living to conquer cancer again and again...

Note: For those interested, a more detailed article by Dr. Mehmet Sıtkı Çopur about designing cancer clinical trials can be found here: How to Build a Clinical Trial Infrastructure in the Community Oncology Setting

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