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On Monday, December 1st, the Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute’s Community Advisory Council hosted the fourth annual CAC Retreat. Members, supporters, and special guests gathered at the Piedmont Club in Spartanburg to reflect on Gibbs’ five-year journey with the local engagement project as participants in the NCI Cancer Moonshot Biobank Research Protocol, celebrating progress in cancer care, the importance of community advisory boards within the healthcare system, and highlighting why participation matters in research.
Melyssa Foust, Program Manager of the Cancer Control/Cancer Care Delivery Research division and Upstate Carolina CCDR Director, welcomed the advisory council and attendees with a reflection on our journey to establish the Community Advisory Council and the groundbreaking work achieved with the support of our stakeholders.
Dr. Amy Curtis, Medical Director of Gibbs Cancer Center and Principal Investigator of Upstate Carolina NCORP, gave an excellent presentation on remarkable advances in cancer treatment and prevention, highlighting how five-year survival rates have improved significantly across many cancer types. She focused on how reducing wait times and ensuring timely specialist appointments have been a great investment in our healthcare system, which, overall, positively impacts patient care by fostering trust. Lastly, Dr. Curtis focused on how research participation strengthens community connections amongst our patients, providers, and institutions by introducing a pipeline protocol to the advisory council. The council provided feedback on our newly focused financial hardship trial, which will focus on patients with advanced cancer. The advisory board's insights are significant in shaping our patient-centered approach strategies for recruitment and retention.
Audrianna Carrington, Lead Moonshot Coordinator, and Enijah Pace, Data Coordinator, provided the council with the final focus steps of the overall Moonshot project, emphasizing the study’s next steps and goals regarding progression biopsy samples. The overall accrual numbers for the Moonshot study are 137 participants. Since grant year two, our site has tracked biospecimen collection data and progression biopsies, ensuring NCI researchers have access to cancer tissue and data for the future. Additionally, Upstate Carolina NCORP-Gibbs reached our engagement goals, focused on Black/African American enrollment (40% of our site enrollments), with multiple myeloma as the highest-enrolled cancer diagnosis type, and 34% of our overall patient enrollment from rural areas. Audrianna Carrington emphasized the importance of mentorship among the oncology research workforce to “take off” and “land” a multiplex protocol, such as the CMB project, while Enijah highlighted how his work as an intern and data coordinator has prepared him for success.
Additionally, the same week, Dr. Amy Curtis and Audrianna Carrington attended the 2025 Annual Women’s Leadership Luncheon to support Sheryl Booker, one of the most prominent leaders in Spartanburg and instrumental in establishing our Community Advisory Board and onboarding community members, who was honored with the Mary L. Thomas Award for Civic Leadership & Community Change. Sheryl Booker, of One Acorn, a consulting company with a vision of “A unified community striving for a just society,” along with her husband, Dr. Russell Booker, are lifelong residents of Spartanburg, pillars of philanthropic support, and have devoted themselves to the betterment of the Spartanburg community through their work and community engagement. Upstate Carolina NCORP’s team at Gibbs Cancer Center is proud of our community partnerships that represent the Community Advisory Council. The advisory board expressed its approval of how our research program continues to strive towards success, regardless of any challenges, and of providing the best cancer care and access to clinical trials through community outreach and patient engagement.
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