Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care: an Assessment and Analysis of the Awareness and Perceptions of Public Health Workers Implementing a Statewide Community Transformation Grant in Texas.

Introduction: Little is known about the awareness of public health professionals regarding racial and ethnic disparities in health in the United States of America (USA). Our study objective was to assess the awareness and perceptions of a group of public health workers in Texas regarding racial health disparities and their chief contributing causes.

Methods: We surveyed public health professionals working on a statewide grant in Texas, who were participants at health disparities' training workshops.

Adherence to cancer prevention guidelines and cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Several health agencies have issued guidelines promoting behaviors to reduce chronic disease risk; however, little is known about the impact of such guidelines, particularly on cancer incidence.

Objective: The objective was to determine whether greater adherence to the American Cancer Society (ACS) cancer prevention guidelines is associated with a reduction in cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality.

Design: The NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, a prospective cohort study of 566,401 adults aged 50-71 y at recruitment in 1995-1996, was followed for a median of 10.

Building capacity for sustainable research programmes for cancer in Africa.

Cancer research in Africa will have a pivotal role in cancer control planning in this continent. However, environments (such as those in academic or clinical settings) with limited research infrastructure (laboratories, biorespositories, databases) coupled with inadequate funding and other resources have hampered African scientists from carrying out rigorous research. In September 2012, over 100 scientists with expertise in cancer research in Africa met in London to discuss the challenges in performing high-quality research, and to formulate the next steps for building sustainable, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary programmes relevant to Africa.

Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF): bone marrow failure disease scientific symposium 2012.

Aplastic anemia (AA), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) are rare disorders of bone marrow failure. Once considered distinct entities, these three diseases are now believed to have overlapping pathophysiologies. The Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports patients and families living with bone marrow failure disorders, sponsored a scientific symposium in Bethesda, MD, in March 2012.

Predicting US- and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part II: evaluation of spatiotemporal projection methods for incidence.

Background: The current study was undertaken to evaluate the spatiotemporal projection models applied by the American Cancer Society to predict the number of new cancer cases.

Methods: Adaptations of a model that has been used since 2007 were evaluated. Modeling is conducted in 3 steps.

Predicting US- and state-level cancer counts for the current calendar year: Part I: evaluation of temporal projection methods for mortality.

Background: A study was undertaken to evaluate the temporal projection methods that are applied by the American Cancer Society to predict 4-year-ahead projections.

Methods: Cancer mortality data recorded in each year from 1969 through 2007 for the United States overall and for each state from the National Center for Health Statistics was obtained. Based on the mortality data through 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003, Projections were made 4 years ahead to estimate the expected number of cancer deaths in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, respectively, in the United States and in each state, using 5 projection methods.

CIGNOweb.it.

We introduce CIGNOweb.it, a database of oncology resources for patients, the general public and healthcare professionals. It builds on the previous Italian cancer resource Azaleaweb and offers quality-evaluated content.

Time spent for activation of non-profit studies in oncology in Italy.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to describe the time spent to activate oncological non-profit clinical trials promoted in Italy by the National Cancer Institute of Naples, following the implementation of recent European laws.

Methodology: Data about the process of activation of 5 non-profit multicentre clinical trials were prospectively collected through a web-based system. The impact of European guidelines was assessed by comparing the efficiency of the process between applications started before and after the decree introducing in Italy the Clinical Trial Application form (MD-CTA).

Dietary fat and postmenopausal invasive breast cancer in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study cohort.

Background: Although ecologic association and animal studies support a direct effect of dietary fat on the development of breast cancer, results of epidemiologic studies have been inconclusive.

Methods: We prospectively analyzed the association between fat consumption and the incidence of postmenopausal invasive breast cancer in the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study, a US cohort comprising 188,736 postmenopausal women who completed a 124-item food-frequency questionnaire in 1995-1996. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression models with adjustment for energy and potential confounding factors.

A new method of estimating United States and state-level cancer incidence counts for the current calendar year.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has published the estimated number of new cancer cases and deaths in the current year for the United States that are commonly used by cancer control planners and the media. The methods used to produce these estimates have changed over the years as data (incidence) and statistical models improved. In this paper we present a new method that uses statistical models of cancer incidence that incorporate potential predictors of spatial and temporal variation of cancer occurrence and that account for delay in case reporting and then projects these estimated numbers of cases ahead 4 years using a piecewise linear (joinpoint) regression method.

Annual report to the nation on the status of cancer, 1975-2002, featuring population-based trends in cancer treatment.

Background: The American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) collaborate annually to provide information on cancer rates and trends in the United States. This year's report updates statistics on the 15 most common cancers in the five major racial/ethnic populations in the United States for 1992-2002 and features population-based trends in cancer treatment.

Methods: The NCI, the CDC, and the NAACCR provided information on cancer cases, and the CDC provided information on cancer deaths.

New directions in cancer research 2003: technological advances in biology, drug resistance, and molecular pharmacology.

The 94th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) was held from July 11 to 14, 2003 in Washington, DC, and provided an overview of the latest developments in the field of cancer. This report provides highlights of presentations on array-based and RNA-interference technologies to study cancer biology and molecular pharmacology of anticancer drugs, mechanisms and modulation of drug resistance patterns, recent developments in the treatment of prostate cancer, and the medicinal chemistry of established and novel anticancer drugs.

Grantsmanship and career development for gynecologic cancer investigators.

The gynecologic cancer investigator faces many challenges. Successful career development requires choosing commitments wisely after completing clinical training, earning board certification, and completing a fellowship. Finding protected time for research requires cooperation from the department chair, and lining up funding for research begins with the researcher's own institution and stretches as far away as European funding groups.

Prostate cancer treatment and ten-year survival among group/staff HMO and fee-for-service Medicare patients.

Objective: To compare treatment patterns and the ten-year survival of prostate cancer patients in two large, nonprofit, group/staff HMOs to those of patients receiving care in the fee-for-service health setting.

Data Sources/study Design: A cohort of men age 65 and over diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1985 and the end of 1992 and followed through 1994. Subjects (n = 21,741) were ascertained by two population-based tumor registries covering the greater San Francisco-Oakland and Seattle-Puget Sound areas.

Cancer surveillance in the U.S.: can we have a national system?

Cancer-related services are consuming ever-increasing health resources; along with this trend, health care costs are rising. As health care planners, researchers, and policymakers formulate strategies to meet this challenge, they are looking to cancer registries and the health information system built around them as collectors of the most extensive information regarding cancer treatment in the U.S.

Perspectives on Reach to Recovery and CanSurmount: informing the evaluation model.

The Canadian Cancer Society requested that the Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation of the National Cancer Institute of Canada evaluate Reach to Recovery and CanSurmount, 1-on-1 peer-support programs that provide information and support to individuals with cancer and their families. Key informant interviews (with program participants and volunteer visitors) were conducted to gather qualitative data and to help us develop a framework and tools to evaluate these programs. We found that 1) there are program objectives from the perspective of volunteers and participants in addition to those outlined in the program materials; 2) there are variations in how the programs are delivered and how patients or family members are recruited into the program; and 3) there is evidence that Reach to Recovery and CanSurmount volunteers are in a unique position to deliver the programs, either because they have personally experienced cancer or have family members who have had cancer.

New avenues of translational research in leukemia and lymphoma: outgrowth of a Leukemia Society of America-National Cancer Institute workshop.

The workshop was organized on the premise that truly innovative approaches are needed if we are to significantly change the clinical outcomes for leukemias and lymphomas. Several new concepts and pioneering approaches surfaced during the workshop discussions, as summarized above. The design and implementation of translational clinical trials that emphasize these innovative strategies were encouraged as a way to test the concepts put forward at the workshop.

The NCIC/CCS behavioral initiative. National Cancer Institute of Canada Canadian Cancer Society.

The NCIC's behavioral initiative is comprised of three pillars, each of which is designed to make an important independent contribution toward a reduction in cancer incidence, morbidity or mortality rates. It is also expected that the activities in one area will complement those in the other areas, thereby creating a synergistic effect. To determine if the objectives of the Centre for Behavioral Research and Program Evaluation (CBRPE) are being met, the NCIC has committed to an ongoing assessment of the CBRPE's performance, including an independent review of its scientific merit by a site visit conducted at the end of the second year of the CBRPE's operation.

Public health initiatives in cancer prevention and control.

Cancer-related health-care costs in dollars and in human lives are staggering. Reduction of cancer mortality depends largely on the access of the public to cancer prevention and control programs. Efforts by the federal government such as passage of the National Cancer Act and congressional appropriations have been important contributions.

Changing the course: a school nutrition and cancer education curriculum developed by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

Increasing evidence exists linking eating patterns and risk of several major chronic diseases, including cancer. The focus of the "Changing the Course" curriculum is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable them to adopt cancer risk reducing eating behaviors. A behavioral approach is used, involving acquisition of pertinent background information, evaluation of personal intake patterns, decision-making skills, goal-setting, and evaluation of success in achieving goals.