New Unit Aims to Expand Trial and Therapy Options in The Community Setting

Geraldine O’Sullivan Coyne, MD, MRCPI, PhD

Southern Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) Center for Cancer Research

Bringing clinical trial opportunities into the heart of the community may allow more patients with advanced malignancies to access novel, powerful therapies as part of an increasingly personalized treatment paradigm, according to Geraldine O’Sullivan Coyne, MD, MRCPI, PhD.

In July 2025, Coyne was appointed as the principal investigator and director of Clinical Research at the Northwell Health unit of the Southern Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START) Center for Cancer Research. Following a strategic partnership formed between Northwell Health and START in May 2024, Coyne will oversee early-phase clinical trials at New York’s first START research site at the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center in New Hyde Park.

In a conversation with CancerNetwork^®, Coyne highlighted the unit’s focus on providing access to early-phase clinical trials and investigational therapeutic strategies among patients with cancer who reside in a community setting. Being able to safely develop new drugs and agents in the community, she described, lay at the heart of a successful collaboration between START and Northwell Health.

“We want to make sure that everybody is aware, particularly those who are in New York state, that the START collaboration with Northwell Health is going to be opening very soon, and that we do hope that there will be additional trial options available in the community, closer to where patients live,” Coyne stated.

CancerNetwork: How does it feel to be named the leader of Northwell Health’s START Center for Cancer Research unit?

Coyne: It has truly been a moment of delight for me, and one that has been a proud moment, personally. It is, however, incredibly humbling to have been offered this opportunity, and one that I am looking forward to putting in all of my efforts into making this, hopefully, a good opportunity for patients to be able to be considered for trials within the community [while] partnering, in this sense, with Northwell Health here at their Long Island campus.

START stands for Southern Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics, and it was founded in 2007 by a group of oncologists in the locality that were interested in [bringing] these types of trials into their community. START, since then, has had an increasingly well-recognized record both in the US and Europe. It is now the largest early-phase oncology network in the community, globally. This is by a variety of metrics, including the number of physicians that are dedicated principal investigators—or PIs—as well as the extent and the locality of the START networks to date.

Our unit here in Long Island is slated to open around the November [2025] time point. It’s been built within the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center, so we’re very excited about that coming together. It will be embedded within Northwell Health and the Lake Success community. It’s a very exciting time for us.

How does this unit aim to provide access to early-phase clinical trials and personalized medicine to patients with cancer?

For patients, when the decision comes up to consider a clinical trial, on many occasions, large academic centers will offer a good option in the trial setting. But for many patients, this implies that they must travel or leave their social networks of support and care within the area where they live. One of the things that we are hoping, as a group, to be able to bring is the option of additional trials, potentially at various stages in a patient’s treatment paradigm, within the community setting. Northwell Health serves an enormous and diverse population in New York. Having the privilege to be able to bring trial opportunities into the community—into the heart of the community—is what we are aiming to do.

We do believe that this will give patients the opportunity to access novel and powerful therapies that are now increasingly part of a personalized treatment paradigm for patients with advanced malignancies.

What features of this newly formed unit will help facilitate the development of immunotherapy and other targeted therapies for patients with cancer?

START, as a network, is experiencing a moment of growth and momentum with the opening of a variety of additional units within the continental US, as well as in other European locations. This builds on the START units’ expertise and network effect, which we believe gives a centralized and streamlined workflow [regarding] the options for trial and treatment options for patients in the community. That is one aspect of that particular question.

The second aspect, [regarding] newer therapies, is related to the function of the early phase units, where we look to bring and develop these molecules as they commence their journey through the drug development pathway and ultimately to approval in a regulatory setting. We are looking to build on START’s network effect [while] also streamlining and speeding up the development of these newer drugs, which we hope will have an impact on patients in their treatment.

How might this unit foster multidisciplinary collaboration to deliver more comprehensive cancer care plans for patients?

Northwell Health has very impressive expertise and multidisciplinary care already set up within its healthcare system. With START’s help, we hope to be able to collaborate and take on clinical trials that can be safely carried out in the community, that are also more delicate or have the additional support of a specialized center, such as Northwell Health.

In partnering with Northwell Health, given their expertise and their excellence in care, being able to take on trials within the community in a safe manner, and being able to further develop the drugs themselves—these very novel therapeutics—is one that we believe is going to be the heart of a successful collaboration with Northwell Health, and to be able to better serve the community that Northwell reaches.

What are the next steps for further expanding access to treatment and early-phase clinical trials for patients with cancer?

It’s always hard to think ahead. The most exciting aspect of drug development in oncology has been the delicate engineering of these novel molecules that have been increasingly potent, and are either a lot less toxic or have a toxicity pattern that we’ve been able to manage and/or prevent, or mitigate with it. It’s been very exciting to see these newer molecules, such as antibody drug conjugates, starting to become part of mainstream therapy for patients with advanced malignancies.

A lot of the excitement surrounding the START unit and Northwell Health collaboration with them is exploring these novel molecules that will hopefully continue to build on the pursuit in oncology drug development, which has been finding better and more targeted therapies for patients in their treatment journey. The most exciting aspect of working in this area and being able to partner with Northwell Health is to explore these very novel drugs and be able to take on these newer and very exciting complex immunotherapies in the community.

Reference

Olt B. Northwell names Geraldine O’Sullivan Coyne, MD, PhD, to lead clinical trials at new START center. News release. Northwell Health. July 22, 2025. Accessed August 7, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/bdcua8ck