PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) _ Rhode Island Hospital has been awarded more than $5 million to support its cancer research program.

The hospital was awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The hospital says the $5.8 million grant will support the third phase of a biomedical research program at the hospital’s Center for Cancer Research Development.

The hospital says the center previously earned two NIH grants of $8,617,015 and $10,853,821, which supported the first two phases of the program.

Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital President Margaret M. Van Bree says researchers at the Center for Cancer Research Development use clinical trials to design and implement diagnostic and treatment protocols benefiting patients.