Projects

The CPCRN Scholars Workgroup strives to educate students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, practitioners, and other health professionals in dissemination and implementation (D&I) science focused on cancer prevention and control and health equity. Scholars will be provided with opportunities to engage in mentored projects with workgroups that most align with their interests. Scholars will have different tracks to follow, but an educational component covering core competencies is required. Through a formalized process, it is our hope that we can increase: the depth and breadth of the Scholars’ connectedness within the CPCRN, a diverse cancer research pipeline, and applied D&I work in academic and clinical settings. Workgroup products are a D&I curriculum, evaluation of curricula, and Scholars’ productivity after the training.

For further information about the CPCRN Scholars Workgroup, please email: christine.agnone@emory.edu or NOBLET@mailbox.sc.edu

The goal of the CPCRN iCollab Workgroup is to create a cross-center implementation laboratory to study the use of both quality improvement (QI) practice and implementation science (IS) to improve cancer prevention and control.  We investigate implementation support strategies used in CPCRN projects that engage community and practice partners to implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs) into routine practice.  Using case studies from Collaborating Centers, we describe how our Network is advancing: 1) best practices in implementation support across a variety of funding types, cancer programs, and settings; 2) an understanding of the mechanisms through which implementation support strategies impact outcomes; 3) approaches for better integrating QI practice and IS; and 4) health equity through engaging stakeholders in the implementation strategy development process.

For more information about the CPCRN iCollab Workgroup, please email:
Catherine Rohweder (rohweder@email.unc.edu) and Emily Bilenduke (emily.bilenduke@ucdenver.edu)

Research has shown that rural communities in the United States are often at increased risk of cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality compared to their urban counterparts. Similarly, declines in the overall cancer burden seen nationally have not yet been observed in rural communities. The primary objective of the Rural Cancer Workgroup is to leverage the resources, expertise, and relationships of the diverse CPCRN to conduct impactful and innovative rural cancer research to improve outcomes for rural residents and capacity for rural health care providers/organizations.  The Workgroup is currently engaged in a variety of qualitative and quantitative research studies to identify barriers and facilitators to rural cancer equity across the cancer continuum. Three active subcommittees focus on: 1) integration of rural cancer-related data and strategies in state cancer control plans; 2) use of publicly available survey and registry data to explore urban-rural cancer disparities; and 3) initiatives to address equity and inclusivity for diverse rural communities.

The purpose of the Cancer Survivorship Workgroup is to advance interdisciplinary research collaborations and the knowledge base that support cancer survivorship with the ultimate goal of promoting health equity for cancer survivors.  We have defined cancer survivors and survivorship as follows: An individual is considered a cancer survivor from the time of diagnosis, through the balance of their life. We also include secondary survivors such as caregivers and family members of those diagnosed with cancer. Survivorship research encompasses the physical, psychological, social, economic and spiritual health of survivors across the cancer continuum, with special emphasis on long-term well-being, including disease prevention and health promotion over the life course. The Workgroup is particularly interested in advancing knowledge related to cancer health disparities in cancer survivorship, leveraging the use of evidence-based programs and validated measures, bridging research and clinical care, and advancing dissemination and implementation of high-quality cancer survivorship science.

The purpose of the Health Behaviors Workgroup is to examine and characterize the complex relationships between social determinants of health, individual-level determinants, and cancer. The Workgroup is particularly interested in how structural factors (e.g., healthcare access, institutional racism, neighborhood context) influence health behaviors (e.g., tobacco use, physical activity, nutrition) and cancer outcomes. Our objective is to advance understanding of how determinants intersect to influence cancer-related outcomes and disparities. Our work can inform the design of strategies and interventions to mitigate the health impacts of cancer.

The CPCRN Health Equity Interest Group provides guidance to the CPCRN on the development and application of a health equity framework that integrates social determinants of health in cancer prevention and control research and practice efforts. Through our engagement with all CPCRN Centers, we will assess and disseminate best practices for the use of a health equity framework to reduce cancer burden and disparities across diverse populations served by the CPCRN. Collaborative activities include an environmental scan of existing health equity frameworks, assessment of CPCRN approaches to advance health equity and reduce cancer disparities, identification of measures to guide the Network and others in evaluating cancer prevention and control research within a health equity lens, and dissemination of our collective impact to advance health equity.

The overall aim of this highly productive Workgroup is to inform cancer screening-focused intervention planning, practice-level change, improvement at the health system-level, and policy at the state and national level by integrating best available evidence into decision support models and using these models to conduct virtual comparative effectiveness research. Using models, we seek to simulate and compare the impact of alternate “what if” scenarios on screening rates in a given year and over time, the percent of subpopulations up-to-date with routine screening, cancer incidence, cancer stage at diagnosis, and cancer deaths and/or life-years lost due to cancer. The outcomes of focus in a given study and populations simulated are determined by motivating questions and stakeholder perspective considered. We are interested in supporting increased cancer screening overall, as well as addressing observed disparities. Our intention is to replicate projects across states, increasing our ability to test the generalizability of results and learn about the effect of context on EBI impact.

The Multiple Cancer Screening Workgroup grew out of the question:  how can we make cancer preventive services easier for people to access and use? Thus we are looking at a cancer screening(s) paired with any kind of preventive service, be it gynecologic or flu vaccine, etc. Our Workgroup has been focused on a conducting a scoping review to answer the research question, ‘What is the structure, content, and impact of bundled cancer screening programs?’

Evidence-based interventions (EBIs) continue to be underused in community programs and practices. The purpose of this workgroup is to develop, test, and refine training and technical assistance strategies with the goal of building community planners’ capacity to select, adapt, and implement evidence-based interventions. The training and technical assistance strategies will be tested with grantees of the Knight Cancer Institute’s Community Partnership Program, through which the Knight has made a 10-year commitment to provide $1 million annually for community-based cancer prevention in Oregon. Participating CPCRN centers also will have the opportunity to test the training and technical assistance strategies locally or in other cross-center projects.