Cancer Prevention and Control Program
Cathy J. Bradley, Ph.D.
(804) 828-5217
cjbradley@vcu.edu
Laura A. Siminoff, Ph.D.
(804) 828‑5315
lasiminoff@vcu.edu
Scientific objectives
The Cancer Prevention and Control Program has three major areas of emphasis. These areas of emphasis demonstrate the growth of CPC research at the Cancer Center and the unique opportunities available to researchers through Massey due to collaboration among the multidisciplinary CPC faculty using qualitative and quantitative methods to address cancer problems of national significance. The objectives are:
- Understand socioeconomic and cultural forces in cancer diagnosis and treatment to help alleviate cancer burden. We seek to characterize the broader population in which cancer poses a threat. This line of research integrates advancements in information technology with formative and observational research based in the social and behavioral sciences, and sound hypothesis-driven and policy-relevant inquiry. Research is strongly focused on the social and economic conditions that generate health disparities in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
- Enhance cancer care outcomes from treatment through survivorship. This thrust focuses on the lived experiences of patients diagnosed with cancer. This research includes working with patients in all phases of cancer care, during treatment, and survivorship or end-of-life care.
- Cancer prevention through behavior change, healthy lifestyles and tobacco cessation. This focus is on the cognitive and behavioral conditions that promote behavior change to minimize cancer’s burden. The areas of emphasis address the special needs of an urban, minority and uninsured population that co-exists with the needs of the general population served by the Massey Cancer Center. Within this environment, three types of research are distinctive to the Massey CPC Program:
- Groundbreaking research into the economic influences on cancer prevention and control.
- A premiere palliative care program that integrates palliative care into the treatment arena.
- A Cancer Center that is a safety net provider with a continual focus on health disparities research and community partnerships.
Research focus
- Understanding socioeconomic and cultural forces in cancer diagnosis and treatment to help alleviate cancer burden. This research spans from large population-based surveillance studies to individual patient-level decision making and marshals the methodological tools and perspectives of the social sciences (i.e., economics, sociology, anthropology and social psychology) to examine cancer control from the perspective of health care consumers — healthy but at-risk populations, cancer patients and their family caregivers, their health care providers and the health care systems in which they are embedded. Areas of research include how health communication affects treatment decision making and its role in the creation of health disparities, how genetic and familial information informs patient and family decisions about treatment and how economic factors affect access to health services, their delivery and implications of treatment decisions on individuals and society. This research integrates community-based laboratories with novel medical informatics techniques to inform studies that reduce cancer burden.
- Enhancement of cancer care outcomes from treatment through survivorship. The research incorporated into this area focuses on how we can improve the lives of cancer patients at all stages of their cancer trajectory. Research generates evidence for best practices for therapeutic delivery of care and seeks to understand patients and family caregivers’ experiences of cancer treatment and survivorship. The research is implemented through tertiary care settings and within the community using observational methods and interventions aimed toward patients receiving treatment with intent to cure, to maximize the comfort of patients receiving palliative care and to help patients with the ongoing challenges of cancer survivorship. Unique aspects of this research include VCU’s premiere palliative care program, the Thomas Palliative Care Program; model indigent care programs that increase access to high quality care; and outreach to communities where members act as both participants in and beneficiaries of policy-relevant and practical day-to-day strategies for negotiating the survivorship experience.
- Cancer prevention through behavior change, healthy lifestyles and tobacco cessation.This research focuses on the development and exploration of behavior change theories, the interplay of genetic susceptibility and surveillance information and the translation of basic research into interventions that reduce risk factors in healthy populations and in persons at risk for cancer. This area of research incorporates basic research from genetic epidemiology, psychology and surveillance to understand the interplay of biology and psychology on human behaviors and the distributions of cancer-relevant behaviors within populations. Emphasis is on smoking cessation, early training of adolescents to practice healthy behaviors and health behavior change interventions to help cancer survivors improve clinical outcomes and quality of life. A robust relationship with local school systems, community health centers, community-based cancer organizations and the Virginia Tobacco Research Consortium facilitates this research.
The CPC Program addresses the national commitment to reduce cancer burden at all levels of this disease’s natural history, as demonstrated by our scientific areas of emphasis. In keeping with the first and second areas, it is a major goal of the program to promote access to cancer services and to remove barriers to their optimal utilization. At the practice level, the Program uses research networks and other clinical settings to enhance healthy behaviors. Other research encourages healthy behaviors at the individual level. For example, smoking cessation is addressed at the cultural, behavioral and pharmacological levels. The CPC Program targets cancer survivors for primary and secondary prevention behaviors and for coordination of care. Finally, economic analyses that inform complicated treatment and resource-allocation decisions as part of providing outstanding care to cancer patients is a hallmark of the CPC Program.
Emphasis on underserved communities
The CPC Program partners with clinicians to conduct research that can be translated into best clinical practices. A particular emphasis of the CPC program and throughout the Cancer Center that is incorporated in all aspects of its research is the reduction of health care disparities in the detection, treatment and outcomes for underserved communities. This mission is inspired by Massey’s location within the VCU Medical Center — Virginia’s most comprehensive medical center — with a public hospital that largely serves minority and medically indigent populations. These individuals are at higher risk for cancer and are more likely to be diagnosed at later stages with resultant poorer outcomes ― both psychosocial and medical — relative to the majority population. The Program’s focus and relevance to cancer is demonstrated by our research and commitment to translate research into better health outcomes.
