COA Launches Patient Advocacy Network Chapters on Both Coasts

Coming together is a critical element for the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and its COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN). In-person gatherings are seeing a revival at the local level, thanks to efforts by individual cancer centers and Rose Gerber, MS, COA director of patient advocacy and education.

Surrounded by boxes of pizza, Gerber shared lots of hugs as she greeted patients on March 19, 2026, in the conference room of Astera Cancer Care in East Brunswick, New Jersey, which has 14 locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was CPAN’s second such event that month, with the first taking place at Northwest Medical Specialties (NWMS) in Puyallup, Washington. That chapter, first created in 2017, held both an in-person and a virtual relaunch.^1,2

Astera would not survive—much less grow—in the region’s highly competitive market if it wasn’t offering something different. Bruno Fang, MD, and Ed Licitra, MD, PhD, launched Astera in February 2021 when 37 oncologists broke away from Regional Cancer Care Associates to form their own multispecialty practice, which affiliated with OneOncology of Nashville, Tennessee.³

“As most of you know, the care that we offer is special,” Fang said as the meeting opened. “People are not numbers. Access is incredible—incredibly better and easier than in large institutions. We provide all kinds of assistance to patients, in terms of financial assistance, transportation systems—things that we don’t see in many other large places.”

The chapter’s coleaders, social workers Neshama Marcus, LCSW, OSW-C, and Michanya Faulk, LCSW, framed CPAN’s mission in the language of their own profession: giving patients tools not just to cope but to push back against the systemic barriers that make cancer care harder than it needs to be.

Referencing the meeting’s purpose, Fang added, “We advocate for patients [with cancer], both locally in New Jersey [and] in Washington, DC.” Fang recalled his first “Hill Day” with COA, when he joined other community oncologists to visit with members of Congress to discuss issues affecting their practices.

But as he and Gerber emphasized, it’s important for lawmakers to hear from more than just physicians. They need to hear from patients and caregivers as well, and that where care takes place matters, Gerber said. She asked members of the audience to share an anecdote about why being treated in a community practice felt different, especially if they had come from another treatment setting.

The patients did not hold back. One woman who had come to Astera from a world-famous treatment center in New York, New York, said she would be “terrified” if she had to go back there for care. “It’s not happening,” she said. “I went for a couple of years and never saw the doctor—always his associates. They never got the correct blood work [the first time]. It took weeks.”

Others in the room nodded as she spoke.

But do patients in community practice forego the chance for a clinical trial? Not at all, Astera and NWMS leaders emphasized. Research has been a focal point for Astera from the beginning, and since 2025, the group has conducted early-phase trials in collaboration with the START Center for Cancer Research. At NWMS, President and Executive Chair Sibel Blau, MD, has led numerous research initiatives through Exigent Research.

Years before most community practices adopted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, Licitra was listed as an author on clinical trials for lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi), and he presented case studies on Astera’s ability to deliver it at a lower cost than in an academic center.^4,5 For Astera, such competition is not theoretical: the East Brunswick location is less than 10 miles from the year-old, $750 million Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, a collaboration between the state’s largest health system, RWJ Barnabas Health, and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.⁶

What’s also real are the financial threats community practices face due to tax and reimbursement structures that favor consolidation over independent practices. This is why COA is enlisting patients’ help in reaching out to lawmakers.

Gerber explained how 2000 community oncology practices have closed since COA began tracking this trend,¹ as large hospital systems have bought out independent centers, and she warned that in many cases, patients may face longer drives to a new treatment center or longer waits once they arrive. Most of all, she said, they face the loss of the personal relationships that helped them endure treatment.

One patient who has been with the practice for more than 20 years said that being called by name the moment she walks in the door is not a small thing. “I’m a person, not a number.”

References

1. Community Oncology Alliance launches new patient advocacy chapter in New Jersey. News release. Community Oncology Alliance. March 25, 2026. Accessed May 4, 2026. https://mycoa.communityoncology.org/news-updates/press-releases/astera-CPAN-chapter-launch
2. Community Oncology Alliance relaunches patient advocacy chapter at Northwest Medical Specialties. News release. Community Oncology Alliance. March 6, 2026. Accessed May 5, 2026. https://mycoa.communityoncology.org/news-updates/press-releases/NWMS-CPAN-chapter-relaunch
3. Premier central New Jersey group of oncology care providers forms Astera Cancer Care, joins OneOncology. News release. OneOncology. January 31, 2021. Accessed May 4, 2026. https://www.oneoncology.com/blog/premier-central-jersey-group-of-oncology-care-providers-forms-astera-cancer-care-joins-oneoncology/
4. Sehgal A, Hoda D, Riedell PA, et al. Lisocabtagene maraleucel as second-line therapy in adults with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma who were not intended for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (PILOT): an open-label, phase 2 study. Lancet Oncol. 2022;23(8):1066-1077. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00339-4
5. Caffrey M. Breaking new ground in episodes of care, including CAR T-cell therapy. AJMC. December 2, 2022. Accessed May 4, 2026. https://www.ajmc.com/view/breaking-new-ground-in-episodes-of-care-including-car-t-cell-therapy
6. RWJ Barnabas Health, Rutgers Cancer Institute celebrate opening of NJ’s first and only freestanding cancer hospital. News release. RWJBarnabas Health. May 14, 2025. Accessed May 4, 2026. https://www.rwjbh.org/blog/2025/may/rwjbarnabas-health-rutgers-cancer-institute-cele/