CRCHD e-bulletin

CANCER DISPARITIES NEWS DIGEST (02.28.07)

In This Issue...

CRCHD Announcements

Teleconference: How the Patient Navigator Program Helps Cancer Patients

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
1:00pm - 2:00pm (EST)
USA Toll-Free: 1-800-857-6584 Passcode: PNP
Toll-Free Playback: 1-800-873-2035 through April 7, 2007
The Office of Liason Activities presents Understanding NCI: Toll-Free Teleconference Series. Learn more about the Patient Navigation Research Program (PNRP). This teleconference will feature Roland Garcia, PhD, Program Director of PNRP, and Beth Calhoun, PhD, Co-Principal Investigator from the Chicago Cancer Navigation Project.
http://ola.cancer.gov
http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin

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News from NCI, NIH, and other Federal Agencies

HHS Office of Minority Health to Launch National Effort to End Health Disparities

The energy and excitement of the National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health will be focused in 2007 on a national initiative from the Office of Minority Health (OMH) – the new National Action Agenda to End Health Disparities for Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations.
http://www.omhrc.gov

AHRQ and the National Healthcare Disparities Report

In January, AHRQ released the 2006 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR). The NHDR summarized this years findings with four key themes: disparities remain prevalent for those who seek health care services in America, some disparities are diminishing while others are increasing, opportunities for reducing disparities remain, and information about disparities is improving although gaps still exist.
http://www.ahrq.gov

Live Webcast: Is the US Making Progress in Reducing Disparities in Health Care Access and Quality?

March 2, 2007
1:00pm (EST)
The first in the series of interactive webcasts entitled “Today's Topics In Health Disparities” will provide an overview of key findings in the 2006 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR), focus attention on evidence showing the areas in which racial and ethnic disparities in health care have narrowed, and discuss interventions that may explain some of the gains achieved.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org

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Cancer News From the Field

NCI Grantee Spotlights

The Art and Science of Integrating Undoing Racism with CBPR: Challenges of Pursuing NIH Funding to Investigate Cancer Care and Racial Equity

(Journal of Urban Health, Vol. 83(6), 1004-1012, November 2006)
In this paper, authors Eng, Vines, and White of the Carolina Community Network CNP, and others explore the integration of community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles with an Undoing Racism process to conceptualize, design, apply for, and secure National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to investigate the complexities of racial equity in the system of breast cancer care.

See Full Article

http://www.springerlink.com

MassCONECT Web Site Launch

CNP Site, MassCONECT, announce the official launch of their web site. Please visit the site often for information about MassCONECT activities and resources. The site is intended to be a living resource that is continually updated and useful. Your feedback is very important. Please don't hesitate to use the "contact us" button to provide suggestions about how the Web site could be more informative to you.
http://www.massconect.org

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Enhancing Practice

Adequacy of Communicating Results From Screening Mammograms to African American and White Women

(Am J Public Health, 2007, Jan 31)
The authors of this study examined whether African American women were as likely as White women to receive the results of a recent mammogram and to self-report results that matched the mammography radiology report (i.e., were adequately communicated).

See Full Article

http://www.ajph.org

See Related Article

Disparities in Colon Cancer Screening in the Medicare Population

(Arch Intern Med. 167,258-264, February 2007)
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States, but the rate of screening remains low. Since 2001, Medicare has provided coverage of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in individuals at average risk, but little is known about the effect of this coverage on screening or disparities in screening practices.

See Full Article

http://archinte.ama-assn.org

See Related Articles

Cervical Cancer Incidence in a Prevaccine Era in the United States, 1998–2002

(Obstet Gynecol, 109, 360-370, 2007)
Saraiya et al. report that despite intense screening in the past decade, higher rates of cervical cancer persist among women in the South and women who are African American or Hispanic.

See Full Article

http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/reprint/109/2/360

See Relate Article

Sociocultural Predictors of Breast Cancer Risk Perceptions in African American Breast Cancer Survivors

(Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 16, 244-248, February 1, 2007)
This study characterized perceived risk of developing breast cancer in African American breast cancer survivors at risk for having a BRCA1 or BRCA1 (BRCA1/2) mutation and identified factors having significant independent associations with risk perceptions.

See Full Article

http://cebp.aacrjournals.org

See Related Article

Survey Finds Perceived Risk of Recurrence Is Low in African American Breast Cancer Survivors

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Cancers of the Uterine Corpus

Survival after diagnosis of cancer of the uterine corpus is significantly worse in black women as compared with white women. The etiology of the racial and ethnic disparities that exist in endometrial cancer incidence and outcome is multifactorial and complex.
http://www.nmanet.org

Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity and Medical Care, 2007 Update

The Kaiser Family Foundation's updated version of Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity and Medical Care, 2007 Update, serves as a quick reference source on health disparities. New in the 2007 Key Facts are demographic data on the racial/ethnic minority population in each state and the U.S. territories.
http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/6069.cfm

Enhancing Public Hospitals' Reporting of Data on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Care

In this Commonwealth Fund report researchers at George Washington University assess whether safety net hospitals treating large minority populations can use measures adopted by the Hospital Quality Alliance to collect quality data by patients' race and ethnicity.
http://www.cmwf.org

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Select Disparities-Related News Stories

Death Rates from Major Cancers in African Americans Remain Significantly High

Although the overall cancer death rate in African Americans has continued to decrease since the early 1990s, the rate was 35 percent higher in African American men and 18 percent higher in African American women than in white men and women in the most recent time period (2003).
http://www.cancer.org

See Related Articles

Black Men and Prostate Cancer: A Clue

Compared with white men, African American men are 50 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer, and twice as likely to die from it. They also tend to develop it at younger ages.
http://www.philly.com

See Related Article

Researchers Find Possible Genetic Link to Prostate Cancer That Increases Black Men's Risk

Cancer Patients Nationwide Can More Easily Navigate Health Care System

AstraZeneca and the American Cancer Society has announced a strategic collaboration to significantly extend the reach of the Society's innovative Patient Navigator Program, an initiative to assist individual cancer patients in negotiating the health care system.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com

All Breast Cancer Patients Are Not Treated the Same

When women with low incomes or low levels of education start chemotherapy for breast cancer, they routinely get insufficient doses, a new study suggests. That may be one reason they are less likely to survive the disease than other women.
http://www.nytimes.com

Opinion Pieces Discuss Ways To Address Racial, Ethnic Disparities in Cancer Mortality

On Friday, January 26, 2007, the Tennessean published an editorial and three opinion pieces responding to cancer mortality among minorities.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org

Aggressive Breast Cancer Hits Latinas

An aggressive and hard-to-treat type of breast cancer known to plague young African American women also disproportionately affects Latinas at higher rates, new research in California shows.
http://www.chron.com

Black Women Develop Earlier Breast Cancer and Are More Prone of Dying from It

A team at the University of East Anglia and the Children’s Hospital Boston, collaborating with Italian researchers, found that African and American women with African ancestry are more prone to develop breast cancer before menopause and to die of it than their white counterparts.
http://news.softpedia.com

Breast Cancer Theory Supports African Folklore

Scientists who have proposed a controversial theory that surgery to remove a breast tumor may actually help the cancer to spread said their ideas may also explain why black women have been more likely to die of breast cancer in the past.
http://www.dailytimes.com

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Funding, Training, and Employment Opportunities

Funding Opportunities

Feasibility Studies for Collaborative Interaction for Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnership (P20) (PAR-07-230)

NCI invites applications for linked awards using the NIH P20 funding mechanism and intended for feasibility studies to assist researchers and faculty at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) establish collaborative partnerships with the researchers and faculty of NCI-designated Cancer Centers.
Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): April 15, 2009
http://grants.nih.gov

Comprehensive Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnership (U54) (RFA-CA-07-045)

NCI invites cooperative agreement (U54) linked award applications for the implementation of Comprehensive Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnerships (MI/CCPs) between Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and NCI-designated Cancer Centers (or groups of Centers).
Application Receipt Date(s): April 13, 2007
http://grants.nih.gov

Research Infrastructure In Minority Institutions (RIMI)[P20] (RFA-MD-07-002)

The Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) Program focuses on building research capacity in predominantly minority-serving academic institutions that offer one or more associates, baccalaureate and/or master's degrees in the life sciences, behavioral sciences and/or other health related areas.
Application Receipt Date(s): April 27, 2007
http://grants.nih.gov

NCMHD Endowment Program for Increasing Research and Training Capacity in Section 736 Health Professions Schools (NCMHD Research Endowment Fund) (S21 and S22)(RFA-MD-07-001)

The purpose of this program is to build capacity and research infrastructure and to facilitate minority health research and research regarding other health disparity populations at eligible institutions.
Application Receipt Date(s): April 10, 2007
http://grants.nih.gov

Minority HIV/AIDS Research Initiative to Build Capacity in Black and Hispanic Communities and Among Black and Hispanic Researchers to Conduct HIV/AIDS Epidemiologic and Prevention Research (U01)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the availability of fiscal year (FY) 2007 funds for a cooperative agreement program called the Minority HIV/AIDS Research Initiative (MARI)–Round 2.
Application Submission Receipt Date(s): April 2, 2007
http://www.cdc.gov

Understanding and Promoting Health Literacy (R01)

The ultimate goal of this program announcement is to encourage empirical research on health literacy concepts, theory and interventions as these relate to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ public health priorities that are outlined in its HealthierUS and Healthy People 2010 initiatives.
Application Submission/Receipt Date(s): May 24, 2007; January 24, 2008; September 24, 2008; May 25, 2009; January 25, 2010
http://grants.nih.gov

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Training Opportunities

Notice: The MARC Branch of the Minority Opportunities in Research Division Will Conduct a Technical Assistance Workshop on the New MARC U*STAR Program Announcement (NOT-GM-07-103)

The MORE Division of the National Institute of General Medical Science will conduct a Technical Assistance Workshop for MARC Program Directors, potential Program Directors, and others who have an interest in and intend to apply for the MARC U*STAR program.
Workshop Date: April 2, 2007
http://grants.nih.gov

American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award

The AACR Team Science Award will recognize an outstanding interdisciplinary research team. The team selected will collectively be awarded a prize of $50,000 and recognized during the 2007 AACR Annual Meeting.
Nomination deadline: Monday, March 19, 2007
http://www.aacr.org

Call For Nominations: Minorities in Science and Research Fields Awards

The Career Communications Group (CCGMag) needs you to identify any outstanding minority candidates within your organization in order to be recognized at the Conference and in our Science Spectrum magazine.
Nomination Deadline: March 31, 2007
http://www.ccgmag.com/emerald

NIH Summer Institute 2007 on the Design and Development of Community-Based Participatory Research in Health

The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and its partners are sponsoring a Summer Research Institute to address essential conceptual, methodological and practical issues involved in planning and carrying out research that is jointly conducted by communities and researchers.
Application deadline: May 7, 2007
http://obssr.od.nih.gov

Notice of Summer Institute Program to Increase Diversity in Health-Related Research (NOT-HL-06-138)

The purpose of this Notice is to announce the NHLBI's intention to issue a Request for Applications (RFA) in the spring of 2007 to fund four-year R25 grants to conduct summer institute programs to enable faculty and scientists from under-represented minority (URM) racial and ethnic groups and faculty and scientists with disabilities to further develop their research skills and knowledge.
Applications are not being solicited at this time.
http://grants.nih.gov

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Employment Opportunities

Tenure Track Position Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology

The Laboratory now invites applications for a tenure track investigator to develop an independent basic research program in cellular and molecular biology with emphasis on understanding basic signal transduction processes.
http://www.training.nih.gov

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Upcoming Meeting and Events

Call for Abstracts for SOPHE's 58th Annual Meeting: Partnerships to Achieve Health Equity

October 31 - November 3, 2007
Alexandria Mark Hilton
Alexandria, VA
Abstract Submission Deadline: March 15, 2007
http://www.sophe.org

Call for Session Proposals for the SACNAS National Conference

October 11-14, 2007
Kansas City, Missour
Proposal Submission Deadline: March 15, 2007
http://www2.sacnas.org

The National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality's (NICHQ) 6th Annual Forum for Improving Children's Health Care

March 19-21, 2007
Hyatt Regency Hotel
San Francisco, CA
http://www.nichq.org/nichq

Call for Submissions for Presentations for the Sixth Annual National Health Communication Conference

November 28, 2007
National Academy of Sciences Building
Washington, DC
Abstract Submission Deadline: May 30, 2007
E-mail kjohnson@acponline.org for more information.

MICR at the 2007 AACR Annual Meeting

April 15, 2007
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.aacr.org

CRCHD-Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Development Workshop

May 7-8, 2007
Hilton
Gaithersburg, MD
(closed meeting)

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