Population Science and Cancer Control Program

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The Population Science and Cancer Control (PS) Program seeks to generate research discoveries addressing cancer burden and disparities in the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center’s (SCCC) North Texas catchment area and beyond. The PS Program specific aims are to: (1) identify and evaluate biomarkers to assess cancer risk, detect it early, and predict progression, (2) identify factors, at multiple levels, that are associated with cancer prevention and early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship care delivery, processes, and outcomes, and (3) develop and test interventions to improve implementation of evidence-based cancer prevention and control services, with a focus on underserved populations and safety-net healthcare systems. The PS Program emphasizes research across the cancer continuum from prevention and early detection, through treatment and survivorship, working to translate discoveries to inform research across disease sites and across the three aims. The PS Program is co-led by Simon Craddock Lee, PhD, MPH, and Amit Singal, MD, MS. The PS Program has 27 members, across seven departments in the UT Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) and two departments in the Dallas Regional Campus of the UT School of Public Health. Investigators recruited and appointed to the faculty since 2014 include experts in biostatistics, data science, epidemiology, geospatial science, health services research, social psychology, and tobacco control. The PS Program’s funding base is on an upward trend, with a current total funding base of $5.9M, which is predicted to accelerate due to key new recruitments into the program. Of the total amount, 98% ($5.8M) is peer-reviewed, with $3.1M from the NCI. The PS Program’s total research funding base represents an increase of 9% compared with 2014 data, which have been adjusted to conform with the revised Cancer Center Support Grant guidelines. Not included in the 2019 research base is the significant amount of funding for the infrastructure and cores that support the program’s two Population-based Research to Optimize the Screening Process (PROSPR) cooperative agreements. The sophisticated data collection infrastructure is essential in supporting the projects associated with PROSPR and the thrust of its cooperative effort to increase our understanding of healthcare system, provider, and individual- level factors that affect the quality of cancer screening and SCCC’s focus on underserved populations. The PS Program has become adept at conducting hypothesis-driven research, often through large pragmatic trial designs, to advance care delivery in cancer prevention and control. Since 2014, PS Program members have authored 498 peer-reviewed publications: 31% represent intraprogrammatic work, 34% are interprogrammatic collaborations, and 49% are interinstitutional.