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Washington, D.C. — Lombardi Cancer Center and the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) have joined forces to investigate ways of increasing cancer awareness and reducing the incidence of cancer among African Americans, who bear a disproportionately high burden of certain types of cancer compared with other populations. The partnership has received $250,000 per year from the National Cancer Institute for three years in the form of a planning grant.
The grant will help investigators establish a cancer research education and training program for undergraduate and graduate students as well as the community. The goal is to train more African Americans to become cancer researchers, and to raise cancer awareness in the community. The planning period will be used to pilot-test the joint training program, determine needs for expanding the program and evaluate its success.
The need is particularly great for the African American community because, according to recent American Cancer Society statistics, African Americans get cancer at a rate of 444.6 per 100,000, compared with 402.1 per 100,000 for whites. African Americans are 33 percent more likely to die from cancer than are whites, according to the American Cancer Society. Additionally, African Americans in Washington have the highest rate of cancer in the nation.
"The Lombardi Cancer Center is deeply committed to playing a significant role in increasing cancer awareness and prevention among Washington's African Americans, who comprise 68 percent of the city's population," said Peter Shields, MD, professor of medicine and oncology at Georgetown Medical Center and prinicipal investigator of this project. "This grant will allow us to forge a partnership that will ultimately benefit the residents of this city."
This program was established by the National Cancer Institute to foster working relationships between comprehensive cancer centers and minority-serving institutions such as the UDC to increase cancer-related activities at and other minority-serving institutions, and to enable the comprehensive cancer centers to focus on the health needs of minority populations.
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