Virginia Mason is a performance site of the Northwest NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NW NCORP). NW NCORP is one of 46 NCORPs, a national network of investigators, cancer care providers, academic institutions, and other organizations. NCORP conducts multi-site cancer clinical trials and studies in diverse populations in community and academic based health care systems across the United States and Puerto Rico. National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been collaborating with investigators and bringing research to communities for more than 30 years. NCORP builds on NCI’s previous community programs, maintaining the strong history of clinical research accountability, resource sharing and exchange, and partnership-building between NCI, academic institutions and communities.

The overall goal of NCORP is to bring cancer clinical trials (cancer control, prevention, screening, treatment and imaging), as well as cancer care delivery research (CCDR), to individuals in their own communities, thus generating a broadly applicable evidence base that contributes to improved patient outcomes and a reduction in cancer disparities.

Research in the community and academic setting allows access to a larger and more diverse patient population in a variety of "real world" health care locations. This can accelerate clinical trials, enable feasibility testing of promising new interventions, and increase the generalizability of study findings. Engaging community oncologists in collaborative research can also facilitate the uptake of effective, evidence-based practices into routine care.

NCORP brings researchers together with community-based physicians to conduct high-quality clinical studies for cancer patients, for people at risk of cancer, and their health care organizations in local community settings, where most patients receive their care.