Behavioral Oncology Education and Career Development

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Behavioral oncology seeks to contribute to cancer prevention and control by identifying and promoting behaviors that can lead to reductions in cancer risk, earlier detection of cancer, and improved quality of life following cancer diagnosis. In 1996, the National Cancer Institute convened a working group to assess the current status and future directions of research in behavioral oncology. The working group observed that behavioral research had made significant contributions to cancer prevention and control efforts, but that many opportunities and challenges remained. In order to sustain scientific progress in this area, the working group concluded that innovative training grants for behavioral scientists would be especially important. We are seeking funding to develop and implement a curriculum dependent program that will train postdoctoral candidates in cancer research settings that are highly inter-disciplinary and collaborative. Our program focuses on training cancer scientists in behavioral oncology research, a field that clearly requires training in collaborative and inter-disciplinary settings. The proposed program builds upon extensive and productive collaborations among University of South Florida and Moffitt Cancer Center researchers in behavioral science, population science, epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition, nursing, medicine, as well as cancer prevention and control. In order to achieve the stated educational and career objectives, we have designed a program that features leadership by an established group of senior investigators, the development and implementation of a specialized curriculum not otherwise available at our institution, numerous inter-disciplinary research environments, and training committees comprised of a minimum of three mentors per trainee. The specific objectives of the proposal are: 1) to establish a postdoctoral training program in behavioral oncology research using the faculty and resources of the University of South Florida and the Moffitt Cancer Center; 2) to recruit promising trainees committed to careers as researchers in behavioral oncology; and 3) to provide these trainees with the didactic and research experiences need to become successful independent investigators in behavioral oncology.