COMMUNITY CANCER CONTROL OUTREACH CORE (CCCOC) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Despite lower overall cancer incidence and mortality among Hispanics compared with non-Hispanic whites, rates of infection-related cancers are up to twice as high in Hispanics. For example, both Puerto Rico (PR) and Texas (TX) Hispanics experience a substantial burden of hepatitis and human papillomavirus (HPV) -related cancers. There is an urgent need to intervene to reduce these cancers in both settings. As part of the UPR/MDACC Partnership for Excellence in Cancer Research, the Community Cancer Control Outreach Core (CCCOC; Outreach Core) proposes an integrated community-based participatory approach to identify needs and priorities and to develop multilevel outreach and educational interventions targeting cancers caused by infectious agents. During the past decade, the CCCOC has made significant contributions to increasing cancer control education, behaviors, and access to services to decrease cancer health disparities in Puerto Rico. These efforts have identified and produced innovative outreach strategies and educational materials to reach the most vulnerable and underserved populations on the island. This new funding period will represent extension of our previous research and community work. The Outreach Core will build on previous partnerships and networks, to improve community engagement and outreach to disseminate research findings and interventions related to HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening implemented in both PR and TX. DATAOmics will provide data analysis support for the evaluation of the adaptation and implementation of these interventions (Aim 1). The Outreach Core will also contribute to the Education Core mission and will build capacity among IMPACT's scientists and students in areas such as community engagement across the research translation continuum and implementation science (Aim 2). Doing so will ensure community engagement across activities of the IMPACT program to inform research questions, interpretation of data and future studies. These efforts will also serve to accelerate and improve the adoption and implementation of research findings, guidelines, and interventions for cancer prevention and control in PR, TX and nationally through our participation with the National Outreach Network (NON) (Aim 3). Following our initial focus on HPV, we will expand our outreach and educational efforts to include a broader focus on infectious malignancies of
in PR and TX. The Outreach Core will result in meaningful collaboration across a large network of partners in both PR and TX engaged in cancer control efforts. To ensure that activities and community impact are sustained beyond the funding period, we will develop the infrastructure, personnel and protocols for a permanent program of Cancer Control Outreach and Education integrated within the UPR Cancer Center.
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