Outreach Core

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One in three U.S. residents, over 100 million people, are minorities (1). Of these, over 39 million, 13% of the entire U.S. population, are foreign-born (2). New York City (NYC), a longstanding magnet for immigrants, is home to 3 million foreign-born, 1.5 million of whom are limited English proficient (LEP) (3). This large and diverse population faces significant disparities in cancer incidence, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes (4-21). These disparities are fueled by health information and systems access barriers (19, 22, 23), and by an inadequate evidence-base, which stems from insufficient representation in research and program implementation (24, 25). These factors limit the bi-directional translation of discoveries between bench, patient, community, and policy levels (26) for improved outcomes. Over the past 4 years, PCOP has built a foundation of community-engaged cancer disparities work begun in the U54's Partnership Community Outreach Program (PCOP), led by Dr. Tiffany Floyd of City College of New York (CCNY) and Dr. Carol Brown of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). PCOP has implemented trailblazing community-engaged outreach and research, and addressed gaps in cancer outcomes and quality of care for large medically underserved communities throughout NYC, including the Harlem community in which CCNY is embedded; large immigrant communities; and underserved populations living with HIV. Through partnerships and model program dissemination, PCOP has also extended its outreach and research activities across the U.S., and is a vital member of several NCI and American Cancer Society Committees addressing the inclusion of diverse populations in research. We are an integral part of the NCI Region 5 BMaP/GMaP Network, and are working with the Cancer Disparities Research Network, under the direction of Drs. Electra Paskett and Tim Rebbeck, on the development of an application for a medically underserved cancer risk cohort on cancer risk. If the cohort is funded, the new PCORE will have a key role in recruiting underserved community members into this cohort. To address the growing community based participatory (CBPR) and translational outreach and outreach related research focus of the U54, MSKCC recruited Dr. Jennifer Leng to the MSKCC Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities (IHCD) Service. IHCD, led by Dr. Francesca Gany, was established in 2011 to lead MSKCC's effort in growing the U54 outreach in multiple areas, and to equip researchers and the community with core community based participatory research (CBPR) tools. This work led to the new nomenclature, PCORE (Partnership Community Outreach-Research-Education) core, for what was formerly known as PCOP. PCORE thus addresses a broad range of priority areas, with substantial preliminary work already completed in several areas through IHCD's outreach/outreach-related research activities and through PCOP. IHCD additionally has brought a vast portfolio of community-based resources, networks, and partners to MSKCC and the U54. Dr. Leng brings her extensive background in community based participatory research to the U54. She joins Dr. Carol Brown, Director of MSKCC Diversity Programs, as the MSKCC PCORE Pis. Dr. Christine Sheffer was recruited to join Dr. Tiffany Floyd of the CCNY Department of Psychology, as the CCNY PCORE Pis. Dr. Christine Sheffer is an associate medical professor in community health and social medicine in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at CCNY. She leads research in underserved communities to examine neurobiological and neuroeconomic factors associated with tobacco-related decision-making, to develop new therapeutic targets for cancer-related risk behaviors. Together these Pis bring significant strength in community-engaged outreach, education, and service, in CBPR, in cancer risk reduction, and in cancer health services research. PCORE will bring together the community, students, and researchers at CCNY and MSKCC into a robust community-academic partnership and build an infrastructure for community-engaged outreach and translational research.