Title:
Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research (CECCRs)
( http://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/communicationcenters)

Contact:
Gary L. Kreps, Ph.D.
Chief, Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, Behavioral Research
Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, NCI
Telephone: (301) 496-7984
E-Mail: gary.kreps@nih.gov

Objective of Project:

The RFA uses the P50 grant mechanism to invite applications for Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communications Research (CECCRs). The centers will provide essential infrastructure to facilitate rapid advances in knowledge about cancer communications, translate theory and programs into practice, and train health communication scientists.

Description of Project:
Centers must include three or more individual research projects, which reflect hypothesis-driven research, pilot or developmental research projects, shared resources and career development. To be effective, the Centers’ research should integrate cancer communications appropriately into one or more contexts of the cancer continuum--from prevention through treatment to survivorship and end-of-life research. Communications research also is needed about challenging topics such as cancer information seeking, decision making under uncertainty, and genetic testing. Centers’ research also should provide insight into mechanisms underlying how people process information. It is expected that the Centers’ interdisciplinary efforts will result in new and/or improved syntheses, theories, methods and interventions, including those for diverse populations.

Specifically, the goals are to:

• Increase the number of investigators from relevant disciplines who focus on the study of cancer communications as part of interdisciplinary teams.
• Increase the number of peer-reviewed publications in the area of communication processes.
• Generate basic research evidence to improve understanding of the processes underlying effective cancer communication.
• Produce evidence-based communication interventions that can be used to modify cancer risk behaviors and improve informed decision-making and quality of life.
• Support novel interdisciplinary research to inform medical and public health practitioners about how best to communicate to the public, patients, and cancer survivors.
• Increase the number of evidence-based interventions in under-studied areas, e.g., diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and end-of-life, and on understudied populations.
• Train interdisciplinary investigators capable of conducting cutting-edge communications research directly relevant to the context of cancer prevention, detection, treatment, control, or survivorship.