Cancer Research for the Ozarks (CRO), also known as the Ozarks Regional Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) was founded in 1985 by a grant from the National Institute of Health, National Cancer Institute (NCI). It is one of 48 CCOPs in the United States. Since most cancer patients are treated in the community setting, the program is designed to provide state of the art treatment protocols to community oncologists. The program was originally established as a cooperative venture of CoxHealth and Mercy and remains such today.

For 24 years, access to NCI research trials has been available to the residents of southwest Missouri. Freeman Health System and Mercy Hospital in Joplin, Missouri became affiliates in 1997 which expands the service area to 17 primary and 24 secondary counties surrounding Springfield and Joplin. To date over 4,000 patients have been enrolled on clinical trials. CRO for the past five years has placed over 5% of eligible cancer patients on study which is double the national average.