Training in Research for Behavioral Oncology and Cancer Control Program

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching goal of this proposal is to train pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows in multi- disciplinary behavioral oncology research to help develop a new generation of researchers who can integrate basic, clinical and behavioral sciences. The training program will provide the didactic and research experiences necessary to enable trainees to establish successful post-graduate careers in behavioral oncology/cancer control research. Pre-doctoral candidates will come from departments/schools at Indiana University/Purdue University (IUPUI) and will have been admitted to a PhD program with a desire to focus their research in behavioral oncology. These schools/departments include Applied Health Science, Public Health, Medicine (Divisions of Hematology/Oncology and Clinical Pharmacology), Medical and Molecular Genetics, Urology, Nursing, Social Work, Informatics, and Psychology. Post-doctoral fellows will be recruited nationally to train with primary mentors at IUPUI. The program will be flexible enough to address the educational needs of individuals from different academic home disciplines, but formalized enough to ensure that participants achieve high levels of content knowledge and acquire intensive, multi-disciplinary research experience by the time they complete their studies. The program builds on the unique strengths of a small existing training program housed within the School of Nursing. This R25 mechanism will allow us to expand our program to include a true trans-disciplinary effort and builds upon the significant resources of our NCI-designated Clinical Cancer Center, our core programs behavioral oncology research at IUPUI and the unique strengths of the medical center campus. The first year of the program will include final development of the specialized curriculum as well as enrollment of 2 pre-doctoral fellows and 1 post-doctoral fellow into the program. Individualized training plans will be tailored to the academic background of each fellow but will include four required courses in oncology. Fellows will select a mentor in their primary program of interest and a secondary mentor in a different school/department. Both process and outcome evaluations are planned. An Advisory Committee of senior researchers will guide the program development and student progress. This R25 training support will fill the important mission of training multidisciplinary researchers who can bridge the existing gap between basic, clinical and behavioral research.