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NEW ORLEANS – From LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans:
The National Cancer Institute chose LSU Health New Orleans’ Augusto Ochoa, MD, as the 2022 recipient of its most prestigious award honoring excellence in community-based cancer research. Ochoa received the Harry Hynes Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Trials and Community Research on Aug. 25 during the NCI Community Oncology Research Program Annual Meeting.
As the principal investigator of the Gulf South NCORP, Ochoa leads the only statewide cancer clinical trials program in Louisiana. He began building it with a $5.6 million grant to LSU Health New Orleans in 2014. In 2019, the NCI awarded LSU Health New Orleans a $13.6 million grant to expand the clinical trials network with a special emphasis on minority and underserved cancer patients. The program is now a collaboration between LSU Health New Orleans, LSU Health Shreveport, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Ochsner Medical Center and many community physicians caring for patients with cancer throughout the Gulf South. The NCORP brings cutting-edge clinical trials to patients where they live to improve their care and outcomes. The Gulf South NCORP has been recognized as a leading clinical trials program because of its success in bringing advanced treatments through clinical trials to large numbers of patients, particularly African American patients. Last spring, the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Prevention recognized it as a top five site for accruing participants into Southwest Oncology Group clinical trials.
Ochoa is the chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology and a professor of pediatrics. He holds the Al Copeland/Cancer Crusaders Chair in Neuroendocrine Cancer at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. He is also the deputy director of the LSU Health-LCMC Cancer Center. A board-certified pediatric allergist and immunologist, he practices at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.
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