Cancer Health Equity Research Centers (CHERCs) at Minority-Serving Institutions

Refer to link for more details and how to apply.

Purpose  

The American Cancer Society (ACS) believes that everyone should have a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer (Alcaraz et al, 2020). 

Societal conditions where people are born, grow up, live, worship, and age, have a profound effect on their health status and their ability to access cancer care and to carry-out care recommendations (Alfano et al, 2020; Braveman 2017). 

This funding is intended to support the formation of Cancer Health Equity Research Centers (CHERCs) designed to target cancer health disparities that are unique to a local or regional community. We anticipate this funding will stimulate novel collaborations and approaches to mitigate societal risk factors and contribute to our goals for achieving health equity and reducing cancer mortality.

Scientific Scope 

Due to the complexities associated with social determinants of health and cancer, multi-level and multi-sector research that addresses the interactions of factors responsible for cancer inequalities is required. This RFA is a call for minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to propose solution-based research addressing cancer health disparities that will contribute to achieving health equity. Thirty percent (30%) of the planned research participants must be racial and ethnic minorities or live in rural or medically underserved areas. Teams may propose collaborations with consortia of community hospitals and/or oncology practices, public hospitals, or other academic institutions or medical centers to accrue study participants. We encourage teams to collaborate with non-MSI institutions to increase their awareness of the specific needs and opportunities for solving cancer disparities that are unique to MSIs.

Areas of interest:  

Research topics could include:

• Integration of social-determinants-of-health screening tools and interventions into practice, to ensure that the revealed needs are addressed and monitored;
• Strategies to prevent diagnostic or treatment delays regardless of health insurance or socioeconomic status, geographic location, age, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation; 
• Strategies to increase participation of medically underserved populations in clinical trials;
• Strategies to overcome barriers or promote facilitators of treatment adherence, and interventions to target care planning and coordination between teams of health care  professionals caring for people being treated for cancer.