AIDS Malignancy Consortium

Overview

The AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) was established in 1995 to develop improved treatments for HIV-associated cancers. The overarching goals for the consortium are to develop innovative and effective strategies for prevention and treatment of cancers in people living with HIV (PLWH).

It is the only cooperative clinical trials group with this research focus.

The AMC is supported by a UM1 Cooperative Agreement (CA121947) awarded to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York where Dr Joseph Sparano is the Principal Investigator.

When first established, the AMC only included sites in the United States. However, to address the major problem of HIV-associated malignancies in low and middle- income countries, especially sub-Saharan Africa, the AMC has established a number of international sites in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South America.

AMC Reach & Strengths

The AMC now consists of 30 domestic and 10 international Clinical Trial Sites, a network laboratory, a statistical center, and an operations and data management center.

The strengths of the group include:

1. Its clinical expertise in the care and management of PLWH with cancer in the context of clinical trials.
    
2. The broad scope of expertise, including  oncologists, infectious disease experts, pathologists, radiologists, gynecologists, surgeons, epidemiologists and molecular biologists/virologists, all linked together by their interest in HIV and AIDS-related malignancies.
    
3. Its ability to provide PLWH needed access to clinical trials for cancer therapy, specifically for HIV-associated malignancies.
    
4. Its ability to interface efficiently with other research groups.
    
5. Its development of a strong international research agenda.

AMC Organization & Structure

The organization and structure of the AMC were created to foster development of innovative research ideas designed to reduce the burden of malignancy among persons living with HIV.

The AMC's scientific committees include four disease-focused working groups: Kaposi Sarcoma (KSWG); Hematologic Malignancies (HMWG); Human Papillomavirus-associated Diseases (HPVWG); and Solid Tumors (STWG).

In addition, four standing resource committees are focused on logistical and functional aspects of the group. These include: International Resource Committee; Network Laboratories Committee; Site Evaluation Committee; and the Patient Outcomes, Survivorship and Engagement Committee (POSEC).

The scientific working groups and the resource committees are led and overseen by the Group Chair's Office and are supported by the Operations, Data Management and Statistical Centers to develop and direct the scientific agenda, manage the group's portfolio of clinical trials and correlative studies, and develop new protocols.

Starting in 2015, one of the major activities of the AMC has been the ANCHOR (Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research) study, a randomized trial to determine if treating anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) in PLWH would prevent anal cancer. The study showed that treating anal HSIL prevents anal cancer. More information can be found on the ANCHOR website.

Clinical Trial Support

The AMC clinical trials biobanking activities are supported, in collaboration with the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR), by four regional AMC Biorepositories in the following geographical regions: 

•    George Washington University, Washington DC
•    Arizona State University, Tucson, AZ (ANCHOR Biorepository)
•    Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
•    Sao Paolo Cancer Institute, Sao Paolo Brazil

Learn more about the AMC at its website.

Current Domestic and International AMC Sites

The AMC funded domestic sites include (updated November 2021):

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
• Albert Einstein Montefiore Comprehensive Cancer Center
, Bronx, NY 
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 
New York, NY 
• Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
• George Washington University Cancer Center, Washington DC
• John Stroger Jr. Hospital Cook County, Chicago IL
• Miami cancer Institute at Baptist Health, Inc., Miami, FL
• Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL
• Ohio State University , Columbus, OH
• Pennsylvania Hospital,  Philadelphia, PA
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
• University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA
• Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO
• Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
• University of Miami, Miami, FL
• Virginia Mason Medical center, Seattle, WA
• Anal Dysplasia Clinic Midwest, Chicago IL
• Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
• Laser Surgery Cancer Center, New York, NY
• University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Juan, PR
• Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA
• Wake Forest University Health Sciences, Winston-Salem, NC
• Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York NY
• University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA
• Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of UTAH, Salt Lake City, UT
• MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
• University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA
• City of Hope Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA

Funded AMC African Sites:

• African Cancer Institute at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
• Moi University School of Medicine, Eldoret Kenya
• Uganda Cancer Institute, Kampala, Uganda
• UNC Project-Malawi, Lilongwe, Malawi
• University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
• University of Zimbabwe, Harare Zimbabwe

Funded AMC Sites in Latin America:

• Federal University of Bahia Complexo Hospitalar, Salvador, Brazil
• Fundacion Huesped, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Instituto National De Cancer Jose de Alencar (INCA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Instituto National de Cancerologia, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico