Special Populations Networks Launched to Address Burden of Cancer

National Cancer Institute
Thursday, 6 April 2000

Richard D. Klausner, M.D., director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), today announced a $60 million program to address the unequal burden of cancer within certain special populations in the United States over the next five years. The Special Populations Networks for Cancer Awareness Research and Training are intended to build relationships between large research institutions and community-based programs.

Eighteen grants at 17 institutions will create or implement cancer control, prevention, research, and training programs in minority and underserved populations. The cooperative relationships established by the Networks will be used to foster cancer awareness activities, support minority enrollment in clinical trials, and encourage and promote the development of minority junior biomedical researchers.

"This initiative is one of the largest of its kind in the federal government. It is designed to encourage people from the community to work with scientists to find ways of addressing important questions about the burden of cancer in minority communities," said Klausner. He also noted that cancer is one of the six focus areas in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health (http://raceandhealth.hhs.gov).

The Special Populations Networks incorporates knowledge gained from the recently concluded Leadership Initiatives on Cancer within Appalachian, Black, and Hispanic populations. Those projects focused on cancer awareness, reducing cancer incidence and mortality, increasing cancer survival, and improving access to health care within minority and medically underserved populations.

The Networks project will be carried out in three overlapping phases. During the first year (Phase I), a variety of cancer awareness activities will be implemented within targeted communities, and community groups will work with private and public sector organizations to develop project plans.

In the second and third years (Phase II), researchers will focus on establishing partnerships with NCI-designated Cancer Centers, academic institutions, and NCI Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups to enhance minority participation in clinical trials and to improve training opportunities for minority scientists. This second phase is also expected to yield new ideas for additional pilot projects within the communities.

NCI is committed to discovering why cancer disproportionately affects special populations, and one way to understand this is to encourage minority participation in clinical trials. As a result of ongoing efforts, nearly 20 percent of the more than 20,000 patients entering treatment clinical trials every year are from an ethnic minority group.

The last two years of the project (Phase III), will be devoted to utilizing information gleaned from the pilot projects developed in the second phase to develop full-fledged investigator-initiated research grant applications, as well as to enhance the infrastructure developed in the first and second phases.

"As a member of the Special Populations Working Group that saw these grants come to fruition, I feel that the distinction of the grantees and their dedication to reducing the burden of cancer in minority populations is exceptional. I think that we can look forward to real change in this challenging area," said Harold P. Freeman, M.D., chairman of the President's Cancer Panel.

Researchers who received grants have, among other qualifications, a history of working with the community. Some of the grants incorporate large, multisite projects; others are small-scale projects that target one or more counties, tribal nations, or population subgroups. The funding period began in April 2000.

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov