American Cancer Society research grants total $47 million

American Cancer Society
Friday, 18 October 2002

Special grants focus on poor and underserved populations

The American Cancer Society, the nation's leading voluntary health organization — and the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States — recently announced 96 research and training grants, totaling $47,752,824, to begin January 1, 2003. Of these grants, 82 were new awards and 14 were renewals. The Society funds cancer research in two grant cycles each year.

"Since the American Cancer Society started funding research in 1946, we have spent almost $2.5 billion in pursuit of better methods to prevent, detect and treat cancer," said Harmon J. Eyre, MD, national chief medical officer for the Society. "The Society is proud to be the only private funding source that can claim 32 researchers who have gone on to win the Nobel Prize."

The most recent awards include three research professorships - one new and two renewals -- 28 Postdoctoral Fellowships, and seven Clinical Research Training Grants. The remainder are research scholar grants in the basic, clinical, and behavioral research areas. Two of the research scholar grants focus on reducing the burden of cancer in poor and medically underserved populations.

"We are particularly excited about two researchers whose work with the poor and underserved will be funded through a portion of the Society's extramural research grants program targeting alleviation of the cancer burden in these populations," said Mary A. Simmonds, MD, FACP, incoming national president of the American Cancer Society.

One of these research scholar grants is being awarded to Linda Larkey. PhD, who is receiving her second American Cancer Society grant. (Her first grant, in the amount of $232,000, ended in June 2002 and was directed at American Indian women.) Dr. Larkey's current 5-year grant in the amount of $1,840,000 is for a project called Juntos en la Salud: Cancer Screening and Prevention for Latinas. "This project aims to compare and refine two methods of implementing a community health advisor, or Promotora, program to improve breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening and primary prevention behaviors among a population of underserved, primarily Hispanic, women 18 and over," said Dr. Larkey.

The program will reach women through clinics, community-based organizations, and doctors' offices in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona (urban, and surrounding rural areas). In the usual care (UC) intervention, Promotoras will meet with women individually to teach information and encourage prevention behaviors and adherence to screening guidelines. In the social support group (SSG) arm of the program, Promotoras will create ongoing social groups of women to learn about cancer prevention, foster group dynamics likely to promote desired behavior changes, and provide a much higher level of support through the group than could be provided by the Promotora alone.

"For both interventions, Promotoras will be trained to educate Hispanic women about primary prevention and screening for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer using culturally appropriate materials and curriculum standardized across arms of the study," added Dr. Larkey.

The second grantee is Ana Maria Lopez, MD, MPH, who is receiving a 4-year award for $782,000. She will focus on Examining Barriers to Minority Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials.

"Despite the importance of clinical trials in the development of new cancer treatments and cancer prevention, 85% of patients are unaware that clinical trials are an option for their cancer treatment. Of eligible patients, at best only 20% participate in these trials; for ethnic minorities, participation is, at best, 7.7% of eligible patients," said Dr. Lopez.

Her study will use questionnaires and structured interviews to define patients' and physicians' perceptions of the clinical trial process. This study will serve to advance cancer care by determining the specific factors affecting patient enrollment in cancer clinical trials. Future work will develop specific interventions to address the lack of minority participation in cancer clinical trials.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and service.

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org