The National Institutes of Health has awarded The GW Medical Center with a $1.17 million grant to research the costs of cancer treatment, the medical center announced last week.

The grant will be used to explore treatment costs in relation to quality of care – essentially determining whether the is the quality of care is on par with the price of care. The research will benefit patients, consumers, and third-party payers, according to a medical center news release.

Specifically, the grant will research three types of cancers: colorectal, lung and uterine. By studying three treatments that correspond with the cancers – colectomy, lung surgery, and uterine hysterectomy – researchers will inspect the relationship between the pricing of the procedures and their outcomes.

Dr. Avi Dor, expert on medical pricing and professor of health policy in the School of Public Health and Health Services, is the primary investigator of the grant. The Research Project Grant is the oldest grant mechanism used by the NIH.