The University of Hawaii Cancer Center is getting an $8 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to increase cancer clinical trials to Hawaii’s minority, rural and underserved patient populations.

“Providing cancer clinical trials and cancer patient care for both adults and children gives Hawaii residents the opportunity for the most effective treatments without having to leave the islands,” Jeffrey Berenberg, a UH Cancer Center professor and principal investigator for the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), said in a statement Friday.

The grant will span six years.

Out of 46 NCORP sites, the UH Cancer Center is one of only 14 where the patient population is comprised of at least 30% racial/ethnic minorities or rural residents.