A new $7.6 million award for Implementation Science Center to Fight Cancer Disparities will be co-led by Ross Brownson, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Professor of Public Health at the Brown School and the School of Medicine. Brownson leads the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis and is co-director for Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center.
Brownson will be joined in leadership by Graham Colditz, the Niess-Gain Professor and chief of the Division of Public Health Sciences in the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine. Colditz is associate director for Prevention and Control at the Siteman Cancer Center and has led the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities since 2006.
The award was granted by National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the research center that will develop ways to implement proven cancer-control interventions among disadvantaged rural and urban populations in 82 counties in Missouri and southern Illinois.
“This new Center will strengthen collaborations between the Brown School, the School of Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center,” said Mary McKay, Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School. “It will be a model for transdisciplinary, team science. Most importantly, we think the center will make a real difference in reducing the risk of cancer and improve health equity for disadvantaged populations in an 82-county area of Missouri and Illinois.”
The aims of the center are to:
- Advance the field of implementation science in cancer control by conducting innovative and impactful research
- Expand an exceptional, diverse team of implementation science investigators and stakeholders, including clinical and public health leaders
- Organize and integrate center components to facilitate transdisciplinary team science
- Develop an implementation laboratory (known as the Innovation Incubator) to engage community partners, thus serving as a conduit for rapid and impactful research
- Address cancer disparities by making it as easy as possible for disadvantaged populations to access, use, and benefit from evidence-based interventions
Rural Missouri and Illinois residents are a particular focus of the center because they have cancer mortality rates that are significantly higher for rural than for urban populations. Risk factors such as smoking and obesity are consistently higher for rural than for urban populations. Cancer mortality disparities also extend across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Among both Black and White men with 12 or fewer years of education, cancer mortality rates are almost three times higher than those of college graduates for all cancers combined.
The region includes highly impoverished areas, all within a three-hour drive of St. Louis. In southeastern Missouri, five counties have the highest poverty rates and some of the highest cancer rates in the country. Several Illinois counties are at the bottom of the county health rankings in Illinois and nationally. Many are areas where more regular screening for breast and colon cancer, for example, could have profound impact.
The center will also mentor and advance the work of junior scholars engaged in two pilot studies focused on implementation science. One will identify the extent to which evidence-based interventions are put into practice in rural settings and the roles of local health departments and other potential partners. The second pilot project will provide financial screening for cancer patients, helping them to discuss the costs of care, select health insurance, and reduce financial distress.
“The Siteman Cancer Center serves some of the most disadvantaged populations of patients in the United States,” said Dr. Timothy Eberlein, MD, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor, head of the Department of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and director of Siteman. “This grant will allow us to further engage with our communities that we serve, with the goal of implementing effective interventions to reduce cancer disparities. This is a huge opportunity, it is very exciting, and it is unique that Siteman will be able to have such a tremendous impact on our current and future patients throughout the region.”’
The new center is aligned with Washington University’s commitment to the St. Louis region. The center’s scientific and administrative elements are also aligned with the NIH Cancer Moonshot.
*Originally published by the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.