Breast Cancer Disparities
Cancer health disparities came to the forefront of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 1999 with the passage of the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act, United States (US) Public Law 106-525. The law defined health disparities as a “significant disparity in the overall rate of disease incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality or survival rates in
Read More
Cancer Disparities
Hispanics are the fastest growing minority population in the United States. Data indicate that Hispanics are underserved and less likely to take part in cancer prevention and screening activities than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Similar to Hispanics, American Indians have somewhat lower incidence rates of cancer but disproportionately lower survival rates compared to non-Hispanic whites.
Read More
Pesticides Health Impacts
Organophosphate pesticides (OPs) continue to be widely used in the United States. There is little doubt that OPs are related to ill health among adults, especially farmworkers who are exposed to OPs as part of their regular work. Even more disturbing, however, is that farmworkers’ families, including children, are exposed to pesticides through the take-home pathway.
Read MoreThompson receives $4.29 million for cancer disparities research
Five-year extension of Yakima Valley program expands health promotion efforts to include Hispanic communities in Franklin County
November 8, 2010 By Kristen Woodward
Dr. Beti Thompson of the Public Health Sciences Division received a five-year, $4.29 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to extend ongoing research aimed at reducing cancer disparities among Hispanics in the Yakima Valley.
The grant, part of the NCI’s Community Networks Program, builds on five years of previous federal funding and will allow the Hutchinson Center to expand its cancer prevention efforts in Hispanic communities in Yakima County (lower Yakima Valley) to include residents of Franklin County. (The program will most likely also include Benton County.) Total funding for the project to date is $6.77 million.
Launched in spring 2005, the NCI Community Networks Program aims to reduce and eliminate cancer disparities through community-based research, education and training. The goal is to significantly improve access to and use of beneficial cancer interventions in communities experiencing disparities.
“To achieve this goal, we have been working closely with multiple community agencies and organizations in the Yakima Valley to develop and implement effective ways to reduce cancer health disparities experienced by Hispanics living in this rural part of Eastern Washington,” said Thompson, principal investigator on the grant.
Early success with community partners
During the last five years, the Center’s Community Networks Program, which is based in a field office in Sunnyside, Wash., has built an infrastructure of community partners to promote cancer awareness and education in the Yakima Valley.
Achievements include:
- Establishing a system to recruit minority students to work on cancer prevention projects
- Developing community-based research projects to address specific cancer disparities.
“In the past five years our staff has reached more than 25,000 community members through more than 3,500 community education activities,” said Ilda Islas, field operations supervisor for the Sunnyside office. “We also awarded 10 mini grants to fund community-developed cancer prevention projects.” In addition, five junior investigators received training and more than 20 high school students and undergraduates participated as interns and research assistants.
Goals for extension grant
The new Community Networks Program grant will advance the progress made during the last five years in the following key areas:
- A randomized clinical trial will assess two different approaches to motivate women to receive cervical cancer screening and assess the use of patient navigators to reduce follow-up time after an abnormal Pap test result.
- A pilot project will aim to address community requests for culturally specific support for cancer survivors.
- A community outreach component will conduct a needs assessment and work with the community to develop an education and outreach plan.
- A training core will help train a new generation of scientists in community-based participatory and scientific research.
The Center will continue to work with a 25-member community advisory board on all aspects of the project, including identifying questions for surveys, developing and implementing intervention strategies, resolving challenging issues and planning for the dissemination of information throughout the community.
Hutchinson Center receives $10.24 million from National Institutes of Health for Latina breast cancer research
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.24 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to lead a five-year study that aims to understand and prevent breast cancer disparities in Hispanic women.
The Hutchinson Center is among 10 institutions nationwide to receive funding as part of the NIH Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities program, which is launching a major new effort to understand and address inequities associated with two leading causes of death in the United States: cancer and heart disease.
Behavioral scientist Beti Thompson, Ph.D., a member of the Public Health Sciences Division of the Hutchinson Center whose research focuses largely on improving cancer screening and prevention within the Hispanic community, is the principal investigator of the Hutchinson Center-based initiative.
Read MoreEconomic realities, gender beliefs hinder access to colon-cancer screening among Hispanics in Lower Yakima Valley
Hispanics are more likely to have more advanced-stage colon cancer or larger tumors at the time of diagnosis than non-Hispanic whites, primarily because of barriers related to the use of screening services. A new study from researchers in the Public Health Sciences Division is the first-ever to assess those barriers, a key to devising better strategies for overcoming impediments to getting screening tests and ultimately saving lives.
Drs. Beti Thompson, Gloria Coronado, Marian Neuhouser and Lu Chen — all part of the Cancer Prevention Program — analyzed interviews from a National Cancer Institute (NCI) — funded community randomized trial of nearly 1,800 adults in Washington’s Lower Yakima Valley, which included questions about colon-cancer screenings, attitudes and beliefs. Results of the study were published in the June 15 issue of the journal Cancer.
Read MoreThompson receives HHS grant to reduce cancer disparities in Hispanic community
Source: CNP website
Dr. Beti Thompson, principal investigator, Public Health Sciences Division, is the recipient of a U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) grant for the creation of the Hispanic Community Network program. The award, announced by HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, is part of a total of $95 million for Community Networks Programs (CNP) nationwide. Developed by HHS’ National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, the aim of the CNP initiative is to reduce cancer disparities through community participation in education, research and training.
“Our commitment to closing the health-care gap among racial and ethnic minorities is unwavering,” Leavitt said. “We will continue to support community-based approaches to help racial and ethnic minority populations experience the benefits of modern medicine.”
Thompson said this support will help build community infrastructure to combat cancer in Yakima Valley’s underserved Hispanic population. “Hispanics in the Yakima Valley have lower rate of cancer screening than non-Hispanic Whites. This means that the disease is often caught at later stages. This grant will enable us to work with communities to identify the best ways to reach Hispanics in the Valley and reduce some of the disparities,” she said.
Read More
- Identifying the informational and psychosocial needs of Chinese immigrant cancer patients: a focus group study April 25, 2012
- The last frontier: innovative efforts to reduce colorectal cancer disparities among the remote Alaska Native population. February 24, 2012
- The last frontier: innovative efforts to reduce colorectal cancer disparities among the remote Alaska Native population February 17, 2012