Our projects are conducted by researchers from Fred Hutch as well as our Consortium partner institutions, University of Washington, Seattle Children's and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. We also partner with external research teams. Studies and projects are carried out across a number of populations and across the cancer contimuum — from prevention and screening to treatment. Cultural sensitivity is often a key factor in determing study methods.
Historically underserved populations are much less likely to engage in research studies or clinical trials for a number of reasons. Even now, individuals from underserved populations are less likely to know about clinical trials. Furthermore, numerous attitudinal and structural barriers have been noted as contributors to the low rate of participation in research studies by underrepresented groups. There is an overriding need to recruit people from diverse racial/ethnic groups into clinical trials to improve cancer prevention and treatment across all populations.
The OCOE Recruitment and Retention Resource is implementing training programs and resources to increase awareness for researchers to authentically include underrepresented groups from catchment populations in research and clinical trials. The OCOE can assist Consortium researchers with study design and recruitment by using culturally tailored approaches to promote participation in Consortium studies and trials.
Please fill out our form to request support from the OCOE with community-based participatory research, or community-engaged research best practices in general, culturally and/or linguistically appropriate recruitment, community connection/engagement, technical assistance, or other support.
Disease Screening | Health Communications | Health Disparities | Lifestyle & Behavior | Prevention | Treatment & Survivorship | Training & Internships
An intervention project that seeks to increase screening for breast cancer among Latinas. Its goal is to address multi-level social determinants to both increase screening and decrease barriers to screening. It will examine the influence of neighborhood characteristics and community cohesion on breast cancer screening.
The CARE Study is a multicenter study (Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta) of White and Black women ages 35-64. It’s designed to assess a number of factors, including racial and age-related variation, on the effects of breast cancer risk factors, mammographic efficacy and genetic susceptibility. Malone led the genetic susceptibility work, which assessed risk in relation to mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes, as well as in other genes. This was the first large-scale effort to characterize the prevalence and risk related to BRCA1/2 in African-American women (Malone, 2006). Analyses and manuscript development are ongoing.
In this administrative supplement, we identify gaps and barriers in the delivery of information about Pap and HPV test results for cervical cancer screening among Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic clients. We develop culturally appropriate messages and content for a digital story, fotonovela, and radionovela to help women gain an understanding about HPV and what a positive HPV test result means. We field test the three sources of information to define the best methods for educating our audience.
The long-term goal of the Center for Hispanic Health Promotion: Reducing Cancer Disparities is using a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach to reduce the cancer disparities experienced by Hispanics and Native Americans in the Yakima and Franklin Counties of Washington. Our short-term objectives are:
The long-term goal of the project is to understand the precursors of breast cancer in Latinas, understand the types of breast cancer found in this population, and develop and implement a comprehensive screening program to improve early detection of the disease.
Aimed at marshaling community, tribal, academic and governmental resources toward innovative, culture-centered interdisciplinary, collaborative social and behavioral research and education.
To develop an obesity prevention campaign to promote youth obesity awareness and control using community-based participatory research.
To examine how communication around colorectal cancer screening is disseminated through social networks.
The Legacy Project works nationally to increase awareness of and build support for HIV prevention and treatment, and clinical and behavioral research by addressing factors that influence participation of historically underrepresented communities. The Legacy Project achieves its core mission through ongoing and strategic engagement, collaboration, education and scientific investigation. With a team of diverse, skilled and devoted staff, the Legacy Project works to cultivate and enhance partnerships and relationships among the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Networks and research sites, research and academic institutions, government agencies, community-based organizations and affiliates, while ensuring a commitment to capacity building for communities and populations most impacted by the HIV epidemic in the United States.
To implement and disseminate evidence-based intervention to address health disparities experienced by limited-English proficiency populations.
An in-depth investigation of promoters and barriers to community-based participatory research in Native American and Alaska Native communities and other under-served populations, in order to improve health status and health equity.
GMaP is a systematic and comprehensive approach to facilitating collaboration, cooperation, information- and resource-sharing and capacity-building among cancer health disparities researchers, trainees, outreach workers and organizations.
This pilot project is part of an ongoing partnership with members of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. The long-term goal of this cancer-related public health intervention is increasing vegetable and fruit consumption and general health among people of the Navajo Nation.
Guided by an adaptation of social cognitive theory, we plan jointly to develop community gardens and provide culturally appropriate workshops with technical horticultural support to augment these garden projects through a phased collaborative intervention in Navajo communities. Aspects of Navajo culture and traditional practices will be integrated into the intervention activities. Ultimately, we plan to estimate the effects of an integrated intervention on gardening and fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as the effects on self-monitoring, self-efficacy, behavioral capability, and social norms related to gardening and vegetable and fruit consumption.
This project will lay the groundwork for an R01 proposal to formally evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention with a group randomized design. In the pilot, using a quasi-experimental design, we will obtain estimates of effect size and variability for use in determining the sample size for the R01. This proposal is directly responsive to the overall goal of the NMSU/Fred Hutch partnership: it will increase the capacity of NMSU to conduct cancer research in a competitive environment and attention at the Hutch to cancer-related health disparities research.
To examine how socioeconomic status (SES) and environmental variables predict subsequent changes in energy intakes, diet quality and cost, physical activity, and body weight.
To explore the reproductive factors, anthropometric measures, mammographic density and family history of breast cancer related to risks of TN and H2E breast cancer in Hispanic v. non-Hispanic women.
To develop a Spanish-language support program based on Social-Cognitive Theory for rural Hispanic survivors of female reproductive cancer and to evaluate the program using psychosocial and biological outcomes.
Fred Hutch staff and affiliates, including community advocates, conducted a qualitative study to address the experiences of women who identify as African American, Black and/or of African descent when they receive an abnormal mammogram result. We are especially interested in comparing and contrasting their experiences with stressors, coping strategies and healthcare experiences relative to non-Latina White and Latina women, as well as assessing the variation in experiences among women who identify differently within this group.
This project links clinical information, health care claims, and outcomes data for Native American/Alaska Native cancer patients in CA, OR and WA. This resource will be used to evaluate adherence to cancer treatment and post-treatment surveillance for Native American/Alaska Native Medicaid and Medicare enrollees diagnosed with lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, cervical, ovarian and stomach cancer.
The overall goals of this supplement are to build on previous efforts by parent grant programs to expand research with underserved populations and find ways to increase inclusion of minorities in research and clinical trials in the cancer center catchment area.
The overall goal of the Fred Hutch/NMSU partnership is to continue to build upon increasing cancer research capacity at NMSU and increase knowledge and attention to cancer-related health disparities research at the Hutch. We achieve this goal through:
This project sponsors a broad portfolio of innovative projects and cores to promote the development of culturally-appropriate research, training and outreach.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Program [SURP] is an intensive, nine-week internship designed to provide research experience and mentorship for undergraduate students who are interested in biological research. Under the guidance of a faculty mentor, students will complete an independent research project and present their findings at a competitive poster session.