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The eight centers form a network of research teams that will explore the complexity of health disparities, covering breast, prostate, and cervical cancer as well as obesity, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and other factors. Using a community-based participatory research approach, the centers will include community stakeholders in planning and implementing research into how the social and
physical environment, behavior, and biology interact to determine health and disease in different populations, with the ultimate goal of reducing health disparities. The research communities will include low-income Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, and the elderly.
The centers are broadly based. Focusing solely on the centers that will research cancer, the University of Illinois at Chicago will look at the disconnect between the rates of mammography screening and stage of cancer at diagnosis experienced by African American and Hispanic women as compared with Caucasian women. African American and Hispanic women have higher breast cancer mortality
rates than Caucasian women, even with similar screening rates. The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan will study high rates of cervical cancer incidence and mortality in Appalachian Ohio and University of Pennsylvania will examine the differences in outcomes between African American and Caucasian men with prostate cancer.
NCI will provide over half of the $60.5 million in grants that will be awarded to the centers over the next 5 years.
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