NCI Funds Five Centers for Cancer Research in Persistent Poverty Areas
Coordinated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the $50 million Persistent Poverty Initiative is the first major program to address the structural and institutional factors of persistent poverty in the context of cancer. It has created five new Centers for Cancer Control Research in Persistent Poverty Areas.
Persistent poverty areas are defined as those where, for the past 30 years, 20 percent or more of the population has lived below the federal poverty line. People who live in such areas have a higher incidence of cancer, experience delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment, and are more likely to die from cancer than people who do not live in poverty. However, there has been limited research on how to improve cancer outcomes in persistent poverty areas.
The awards are spread over the next five years across all centers, pending availability of funds:
• Acres Homes Cancer Prevention Collaboration: Led by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, this center will work with primarily Black/African American and Hispanic communities in northwest Houston to evaluate interventions in nutrition and physical activity to help prevent obesity and obesity-related cancer.
• The Center for Cancer Control in Persistent Poverty Areas: Led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, this center will work with Black/African American communities in Jefferson County, Alabama, to evaluate interventions aimed at reducing cancer disparities by improving living environments and promoting healthy activities. The center will also test diet and exercise interventions for cancer survivors.
• The Upstream Center: Led by Stanford University, this center will work with Hispanic and Asian American communities in Santa Clara and Yolo Counties in northern California to assess how state programs for guaranteed basic income affect cancer outcomes. It will also test whether the earned income tax credit promotes the adoption of healthy behaviors related to reducing colorectal cancer risk. As part of the UPSTREAM Research Center, Stanford will partner with UC Davis and UCSF researchers on the project.
“Specifically, my team will assess how state and federal programs, such as guaranteed basic income or the earned income tax credit affect cancer outcomes in Latino and Vietnamese communities in the Central Valley,” said Luis Carvajal-Carmona, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator for UC Davis and the head of the cancer center’s Center for Advancing Cancer Health Equity, in a statement. “We want to see if the basic income program and the earned income tax credit promotes the adoption of healthy behaviors related to reducing cancer risk.”
• The Center for Social Capital: Led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University, New York City, this center will work with Black/African American, Caribbean American, and Hispanic communities in the South Bronx, north-central Brooklyn, Washington Heights, and Western Queens in New York City to test the effectiveness of cancer education and tobacco cessation programs in promoting multigenerational health.
• HOPE & CAIRHE 2gether: Led by the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, this center will work with primarily Hispanic communities in Utah and American Indian communities in rural areas of Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to test interventions for commercial tobacco cessation and obesity prevention. “HOPE and CAIRHE 2gether is not only funding incredibly exciting research but is so much more given it establishes the foundation for a new partnership to address health inequities across Montana and Utah, as well as additional states,” said Neil Ulrich, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and executive director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute, in a statement.
“Persistent poverty is a place-based and community phenomenon that reflects a failure of the structures and institutions in society, including health care,” said Shobha Srinivasan, Ph.D., senior advisor for health disparities and health equity in NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, in a statement. “Conducting research to understand the connections between institutions—such as social, economic, and health systems—and persistent poverty is the only way to inform changes to social conditions and determinants of health that will ultimately improve overall health, cancer control, and cancer outcomes.”
