-Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) The Mays Cancer Center (MCC) has developed an Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE), overseen by MCC Associate Director (AD) of COE Amelie Ramirez, Dr.Ph.H., and informed by input from our Community Advisory Board (CAB) and MCC members. The COE engages the diverse and culturally rich communities of our catchment area to ensure MCC programs? practices, education, and research help reduce cancer burden and health disparities in our catchment area. The COE supports the MCC?s comprehensive approach to reducing cancer burden while translating the most impactful scientific evidence across the cancer care continuum. South Texas is home to 4.7 million people and Hispanics make up 69% of the South Texas population. The MCC catchment area encompasses a 38-county region in South Texas and stretches from the Texas-Mexico border to the San Antonio metropolitan area. For many catchment area residents, the MCC is the only place to receive cancer care. The need is illustrated by the fact that while 77.3% of MCC patients reside in Bexar County (local to San Antonio), those from the 38-county catchment area comprised 94.5% (255,053/269,929 total cases) of all MCC cancer cases from 2015-2018. Forty percent of residents in our catchment area are under 25 years old. Less than 75% of the catchment area population has a high school diploma, and 23.6% live below the poverty level. The most common cancers among all race and ethnic groups in the catchment area are lung, colorectal, prostate, breast, and cervical cancer. Notably, incidence of gastric and liver cancers is significantly higher compared to the state and nation. This cancer burden disproportionally affects our predominantly Hispanic population, which has higher rates of modifiable cancer-related risk factors, namely obesity and tobacco smoking; 33% of catchment area adults are obese and 17% are current smokers. Further, adults in our catchment area underutilize health screenings such as mammograms and colorectal cancer tests. The MCC COE helps inform MCC?s practices, education, and research by identifying which cancers are burdening those in our catchment area, especially in our predominantly Hispanic population, and prioritizing modifiable risk factors. To fulfill the COE?s mission, we propose three Specific Aims: 1) To monitor and evaluate the catchment area cancer burden and related health disparities through ongoing surveillance of cancer incidence, mortality, and risk factors; 2) To meaningfully engage the community in planning, implementing, and disseminating MCC and NCI-supported research; and 3) To help guide MCC?s ongoing and future research to continue addressing cancer burden through research, education, and health policy change. The COE has broad expertise in community outreach and education efforts centered around cancer research and interventions. Important partners are a cadre of bilingual community health workers, and a strong regional network of federally-funded Area Health Education Centers. The COE interacts with all three MCC Research Programs, especially the Population Science and Prevention (PSP) Program, and works closely with the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource (BBSR) to execute its goals. 1
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