While the past decade has seen tremendous advances in translating research findings into public health practices to reduce cancer risks, these successes have not been realized by all members of society representing various race, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. In spite of efforts underway by many researchers, many developers of control research education and outreach interventions do not fully consider the literacy skills and cultural beliefs, values, and language and linguistic preferences of the intended audience. Cancer communications that are delivered above the literacy level of patients and without consideration of cultural influences can be a potential liability for those who assume that patients can understand and act on the information. 2-3 Meeting the challenge of a strong research agenda in cancer control requires an understanding of and consideration of culture and literacy in all phases of program and intervention development. Additionally, it requires a high degree of interdisciplinary collaborations, including the involvement of minority researchers, to effective incorporate the elements of cancer, culture and literacy into meaningful research outcomes. Building on the strengths of our respective institutions (PRCC and HLMCC) we aim: 1) to create a series of focused communications to fuel discussions about mutual areas of cancer communications research to research Hispanic and low literacy populations; and, 2) to prioritize research ideas for pilot projects in years 2-3 which will ultimately lead to competitively funded applications. We anticipate that the planning activities proposed in this project will lead to a synergy for enhanced research productivity, will serve to increase involvement of minority researchers in cancer researchers in cancer research, and have the potential to reduce disparities in cancer incidence and mortality in minority populations.
| Rivera-Peña, Bianca; Ruíz-Fullana, Francisco J; Vélez-Reyes, Germán L et al. (2016) HPV-16 infection modifies overall survival of Puerto Rican HNSCC patients. Infect Agent Cancer 11:47 |
| Baez, Adriana; Cantor, Alan; Fonseca, Sharon et al. (2005) Differences in Smad4 expression in human papillomavirus type 16-positive and human papillomavirus type 16-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 11:3191-7 |
