CPCRN WORKGROUP & INTEREST GROUP PROJECTS

The Rural and Tribal Health and Cancer Prevention and Control Workgroup brings together interdisciplinary academic experts to address the unique challenges and disparities faced by rural and Tribal populations across the entire cancer continuum—from prevention and early detection to treatment and survivorship. These communities often experience higher cancer incidence and mortality rates, compounded by limited access to healthcare services, geographic isolation, and systemic inequities. By fostering collaboration among researchers, clinicians, public health professionals, and community interest holders, the workgroup aims to generate culturally responsive, evidence-based strategies that improve cancer outcomes. This collective effort is vital to ensuring that rural and Tribal populations are not left behind in the fight against cancer and that their voices and experiences inform impactful, sustainable solutions.

The Lung Cancer Screening and Tobacco Control Workgroup was developed to help tackle complex issues such as improving low lung cancer screening rates and tobacco cessation efforts.  Currently, the group is focusing on a scoping and gray literature review focused on obtaining complete smoking histories to inform comprehensive lung cancer screening referrals. Other potential projects include the relaunch of a national lung cancer implementation challenges survey and moving the dial on primary prevention methods by incorporating lung cancer screening.  Drs. Simona Kwon and Claire Adams Spears lead this workgroup.

The Survivorship, Integrative Medicine, and Health Behaviors Workgroup is a collaborative team of scholars committed to examining the intersections among integrative medicine, health behaviors, and cancer survivorship. Our current project seeks to update the analysis conducted by Yun et al. (2017), which evaluated integrative medicine offerings on National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center websites. For this current project, we aim to develop a comprehensive, evidence-informed list of integrative medicine modalities in the updated analysis. These modalities include, but are not limited to, acupuncture, guided imagery, mindfulness, and naturopathy. In addition, we are assessing the accessibility, readability, and availability of each modality using a priori coding framework to guide data extraction from NCI-designated cancer center websites.

The PharmCPC (Pharmacy-Based Cancer Prevention and Control) workgroup focuses on advancing the role of pharmacies in delivering cancer prevention and control services. Building on implementation research in colorectal cancer screening, HPV vaccination, and tobacco cessation/lung cancer screening, the workgroup aims to conceptualize, develop, evaluate, and disseminate evidence-based strategies to expand pharmacy-based cancer prevention efforts. Current activities include a scoping review to identify and categorize pharmacy-delivered cancer prevention and control services, assess their public health impact, and highlight gaps and priority areas for future research. The workgroup welcomes CPCRN members and partners interested in contributing to these efforts, including opportunities to participate in full-text review and collaborative research initiatives.