UAB Expert Available To Discuss Findings of President's Cancer Panel

The President’s Cancer Panel on Thursday called for a clearer health initiative and more community programs aimed at reducing lifestyle-related cancers. The same kind of anti-cancer rallying effort is already underway at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

August 17, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The President’s Cancer Panel on Thursday called for a clearer health initiative and more community programs aimed at reducing lifestyle-related cancers. The same kind of anti-cancer rallying effort is already underway at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

“UAB has long served as a national leader in cancer prevention and control,” said Edward Partridge, M.D., director of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. “We believe one of the most effective ways to reduce this country’s cancer burden is the development of innovative programs that empower the individual.”

UAB is already involved in research, data-gathering and community outreach programs recommended by the President’s Cancer Panel. Examples of the university’s outreach include:

  • The Deep South Network for Cancer Control is working to gather data and field test ideas for reducing personal and community cancer risks across 22 counties in Alabama’s Black Belt and the Mississippi Delta. Organizers have had great success in signing up ten-person walk teams to encourage increased physical activity on a daily basis. So far, more than 2,000 volunteers have joined as team leaders and walk participants this year. Deep South Network is as a community based and federally funded partnership of UAB’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Minority Health and Research Center, the University of Alabama and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.

  • Sowing the Seeds of Health is an educational outreach program working to reduce rates of cervical and breast cancer among Latina immigrants. Program managers meet with and educate church and community leaders about the importance of cancer screening and preventive health care. The group recently produced a DVD for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit to help physicians and health care providers better relate to their Latino patients through language and cultural awareness. Sowing the Seeds is federally funded partnership of UAB’s Minority Health and Research Center (MHRC), the Division of Preventive Medicine, Cooper Green Mercy Hospital and the Alabama Department of Public Health.

  • CARES, or Congregations Reaching Out to Empower Survivors, is a faith-based training initiative to help ministers and other volunteers understand and assist church members through their entire cancer journey – from prevention, to treatment decisions to survivorship. The program started within a network of local African American churches, and the messages are tailored to reach throughout minority and underserved communities. CARES is a cooperative between UAB’s Center for Community Health and School of Public Health with funding by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Community Health Advisors (CHA) Training and Support Institute.

     

    This year’s annual report by the President’s Cancer Panel was released Thursday, Aug. 16 during a cancer conference at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The entire report is available online from the National Cancer Institute at www.cancer.gov. Click on the ‘advisory boards and groups’ tab.

    *Note to reporters/producers: Claudia Hardy, program director for the Deep South Network for Cancer Control; and Isabel Scarinci, Ph.D., M.P.H., co-leader of Community Outreach and Training for the MHRC and professor of medicine at UAB, are available for interviews about UAB cancer outreach.