Key Collaborations

Cancer control research is inherently a collaborative activity. The goals of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences cannot be achieved without collaboration. The list below presents examples of the many partnership activities and collaborations in which we engage. It is organized by research topic area. The table provides another view of highlights of partnership activities. It is organized by type of partner organization and lists collaborative activities across the discovery-development-delivery continuum.

Surveillance

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS and CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) have a memorandum of understanding between NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries to coordinate collecting and reporting cancer incidence and mortality data. The memorandum provides a model framework for collaboration and promotes new efforts to communicate up-to-date, high quality, and comprehensive cancer data to the many cancer constituencies served by CDC and NCI. Staff from both agencies frequently co-author peer-reviewed publications on all aspects of cancer surveillance.



• DCCPS and CDC are collaborating to initiate a national consensus informatics model of cancer registry function. The model will be used as a reference for transmission, management, and analysis of cancer registry data.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

• The SEER-Medicare data include individuals’ clinical and vital status information, collected by the SEER registries, that is linked to their Medicare claims across the health care system. These data are used by researchers to conduct surveillance and health services research examining the economics of cancer care, use of screening procedures, patterns of care during initial treatment, variation in care among diverse groups, and differences in initial treatment between health maintenance organization and fee-for-service patients. Of people aged 65 and older in the SEER data, 93 percent have been linked to Medicare’s master enrollment file. SEER-Medicare data currently include over one million cases. NCI and CMS are working to link SEER to the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey to improve the surveillance of health-related quality of life.

Indian Health Service (IHS)

• Over the last ten years, health care for Northwest American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) has evolved from a centralized system maintained by the IHS to a diverse and complex delivery environment. The Northwest Tribal Registry Project was developed in January 1999 as a tribally-operated program located at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board in Oregon. Through an interagency agreement with IHS, the existing disease registry initiated record linkage studies with state cancer registries in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington. This will significantly improve the accuracy of data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases such as cancer among Northwest AI/AN.



• In 2003 and again in 2005, NCI funded SEER registries to link data to the IHS patient registration database. This effort is aimed at addressing racial misclassification in the cancer registries, and although not perfect, it is a logical step in the process of identifying additional cancer cases among American Indian populations. The process will become a continuing project for SEER. In related work, DCCPS is supporting the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board to conduct linkages with the IHS databases in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.



• The Alaska Native Tumor Registry was initiated in 1974 in collaboration with CDC. It became a SEER member in 2000. The registry reports annually on cancer rates in Alaska Natives in cooperation with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, covering all eight IHS service units in the state.

American Cancer Society (ACS)

• The DCCPS SEER Program partners with ACS, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, NIA, and CDC—including the National Center for Health Statistics—to publish the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer.



• DCCPS scientists developed and validated a more accurate method for predicting cancer mortality counts. This method was instituted by ACS beginning with the 2004 edition of Cancer Facts and Figures and continuing with the 2005 and 2006 editions.

American College of Surgeons (ACoS)
Commission on Cancer

• DCCPS has been working with the ACoS Commission on Cancer, along with the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and other organizations to implement the Collaborative Staging System, which will standardize the guidelines for collecting cancer data in the United States. With this advancement, a computer algorithm unifies the various coding systems used by cancer registries.

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

• Based on population-level data of ovarian cancer diagnosed in 1991, NCI identified that women with early-stage ovarian cancer were not receiving any nodal sampling to fully define their disease stage at diagnosis. To enhance understanding of the need for more complete nodal sampling, NCI developed an Ovarian Cancer Treatment Consensus Development Conference and further worked with ASCO, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to provide education about appropriate treatment for ovarian cancer. Subsequent monitoring of quality of care through patterns and quality of care studies within the SEER Program indicate that rates of nodal sampling have improved, particularly in groups with the lowest rates in 1991.

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Molecular Epidemiology

Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG)

• DCCPS collaborates with DCEG on several high-priority areas, including the implementation of NCI’s Special Studies Institutional Review Board, and leadership of NCI’s strategic priorities in the areas of molecular epidemiology and genes and the environment. DCEG is also a partner in projects to facilitate the development of consortia of cohort and case-control studies.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

• DCCPS and NIEHS cosponsor four Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers. The centers are studying—through both laboratory and epidemiologic research—the prenatal-to-adult environmental exposures that may predispose a woman to breast cancer.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS is participating in a global network of genetic and molecular epidemiology consortia, the Network of Investigator Networks (NoN). The network aims to bring interdisciplinary large-scale science to bear on advancing human genome epidemiology. It is a resource to share information, provide methodological support, develop inclusive overviews of specific fields, and facilitate rapid confirmation of findings. The network was launched by the Human Genome Epidemiology Network (HuGENet), an initiative led by the CDC’s National Office of Public Health Genomics.



• DCCPS is participating with the steering committee for the World Trade Center Responder Consortium, which is monitoring the health status of workers and volunteers involved in the response to the attack on the World Trade Center. CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is funding the initiative.



• DCCPS established the Interagency Cancer Epidemiology Research Funders Group (ICERF) to provide a forum for federal agencies that fund cancer epidemiology to share and exchange information and ideas. DCCPS and CDC are working together to expand participation from other agencies.

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

• DCCPS is cosponsoring with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) three research projects that are part of the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN), which is a nationwide collaboration of scientists studying the effects of genetic variation on individuals’ responses to a wide variety of medicines. The funding supports translational use of biotechnology to understand the basis of human genetic variability in drug responses related to cancer risk or treatment.

American College of Epidemiology

• DCCPS cosponsors the annual meeting of the American College of Epidemiology (ACE) and helps set the program agenda and identify speakers. The conference is an important opportunity to disseminate information about DCCPS funding opportunities and NCI/DCCPS activities and resources to leading investigators in cancer epidemiology. It is also a major forum for the exchange of information on research developments.

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Quality of Care

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• NCI supported the HMO Research Network annual meeting in May 2006. The HMO Research Network is an organization of HMO research programs whose mission is to use their collective scientific capabilities to integrate research and practice for the improvement of health and healthcare among diverse populations. Activities include the NCI-funded Cancer Research Network, a network of 15 HMO-affiliated research organizations, and the Centers for Education and Research in Therapeutics (CERT), an initiative funded by AHRQ to conduct research and provide education that optimizes the use of drugs, devices, and biological products.



• The fourth in a series on translating or increasing the flow of research knowledge into health care practice and policy, the Translating Research into Practice and Policy (TRIPP) 2006 Conference was held in July 2006 by NCI and AHRQ. The conference highlighted strategies and tools for designing interventions to reach and influence different audiences and to promote change in different settings where evidence-based practices might be implemented.



• In collaboration with AHRQ, NCI funded the Health Care Systems as Research Summit in September 2005. The focus of the summit was development and maintenance of delivery-related resources in order to foster collaborations among cancer research and health care delivery organizations. The ultimate goal is to ensure that research is relevant to care, integrated into delivery, and disseminated, to accelerate progress in reducing the burden of cancer.

American Cancer Society (ACS)

• NCI staff participated in the annual meeting of the National Colorectal Cancer Round Table (NCCRT) on November 4, 2005, where they reported NCI’s current data on colorectal cancer screening utilization. They also provided updates on current NCI-sponsored colorectal cancer screening studies, including the Health Plan Survey, CISNET, and the National CT Colonography Trial conducted by American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN).

American College of Radiology (ACR)

• The NCI-funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), an effort to evaluate the performance of screening mammography in practice, provided standardized data forms and a dictionary to ACR to enhance the capacity to collect standardized data on mammography performance in software vending programs throughout the United States. In addition, data from the BCSC were central to the recent revision of the BIRADSTM Manual that is used by radiologists across the U.S.

American Medical Association (AMA)

• NCI has provided technical assistance to AMA’s Physician Consortium on Performance Improvement (a group of 60 medical specialty societies) to develop performance measures for breast and colorectal cancer screening.

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

• The National Initiative on Cancer Care Quality (NICCQ) was formed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to develop a prototype for a national system that could monitor the quality of cancer care. Funded primarily by the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the study was initiated in 2000. The goals of NICCQ were to develop potential measures of the quality of cancer care for two common cancers (breast and colorectal cancer), to ascertain current practice for these two diseases, and to design and implement the first phase of a prototype quality monitoring system. Results were presented at the May 2005 ASCO annual meeting.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• NCI and CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control are cosponsoring a national survey of health plan medical directors to examine colorectal cancer screening practices in managed care organizations. This is a follow-up of a similar survey fielded in 1999-2000 to examine changes in policies, procedures, and performance.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

• NCI staff are collaborating with CMS to analyze data on recent trends in the utilization of FOBT, sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy by Medicare recipients. These rates are being compared to data from the National Health Interview Survey and the National Ambulatory Care Survey, conducted by the CDC National Center for Health Statistics, on the use of these tests by individuals over and under the age of 65.



• In 2003, NCI staff and grantees worked with AHRQ and CMS staff to produce a cost effectiveness analysis to inform a CMS coverage decision regarding the immunochemical fecal occult blood test for colorectal cancer screening—a type of test previously not covered by Medicare. As a result of this study, a decision was made to extend Medicare coverage to this type of test.



• NCI is working with the CMS Office of Clinical Standards and Quality to explore the development of a colorectal cancer screening initiative. NCI is working with CMS staff to develop a proposal for a series of pilot projects as part of the CMS Doctors Office Quality Information Technology Project to test the ability of enhanced office-based information technology to improve colorectal cancer screening rates and appropriate follow-up for abnormal results.

Health Research and Services Administration (HRSA)

• NCI, HRSA, and CDC, in partnership with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, work with 21 community health clinics to implement strategies that improve screening, referral, and followup care for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer diagnosis and treatment. The effort is now expanding in collaboration with leadership in the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC) in order to develop a "train the trainer" model of dissemination. Together with BPHC and CDC, NCI is working with four health plans in the Northeast to train their staff in the collaborative approach to implementing planned cancer screening within their facilities. The goal is to develop an approach that can reach the 800 clinics of the BPHC and more than 16 million people they serve.

National Quality Forum

• In collaboration with AHRQ, CDC, and CMS, NCI has supported the creation of the Cancer Care Quality Measures Project (CanQual), conducted by the National Quality Forum, to identify a core set of quality of care measures for cancer. The appointed steering committee for CanQual includes individuals closely associated with a range of public and private organizations, including ACS, the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American College of Radiology, the Oncology Nursing Society, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

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Tobacco Control

Office of Communications, Cancer Information Service (CIS)

• DCCPS collaborates with the CIS and CDC to offer a toll-free number for smoking cessation services (1-800-QUIT-NOW) and an instant messaging service for smoking cessation (LiveHelp).

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

• DCCPS, NIDA, NIAAA, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation jointly fund the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURC). These novel centers are designed to bridge disciplinary barriers, establish new conceptual frameworks and methods to understand and treat tobacco use, speed the transfer of innovative approaches to communities nationwide, and create a core of new tobacco control researchers.

Fogarty International Center

• DCCPS cofunds research grants submitted in response to a Fogarty International Center RFA for international tobacco and health research and capacity building.



• DCCPS and the Fogarty International Center contribute to a multi-agency collaboration, including five NIH institutes and the World Health Organization’s Tobacco Free Initiative, which funds research on tobacco use and related illness in developing countries.

Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• DCCPS staff worked with AHRQ to update Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, which reflects new, effective clinical treatments for tobacco dependence. The document, a Public Health Service-sponsored Clinical Practice Guideline, is the product of the Tobacco Use and Dependence Guideline Panel, consortium representatives, consultants, and staff. Thirty individuals were charged with the responsibility of identifying effective, experimentally validated tobacco dependence treatments and practices. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/smokesum.htm.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS and the CDC Office on Smoking and Health have a five-year memorandum of agreement outlining specific future collaborations to facilitate prevention research and applications of research findings to address tobacco-related activities in the behavioral, social, and population sciences.



• Smokefree.gov is a state-of-the-art Web site developed by NCI in collaboration with CDC and ACS. It offers science-based tools and support to help smokers quit. Smokefree.gov complements the National Network of Smoking Cessation Quitlines that has established a new national telephone number (1-800-QUIT-NOW) so smokers in every state have access to information and proactive smoking cessation counseling.



• DCCPS staff collaborated with CDC, the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative, and the American Legacy Foundation to develop the 2004 CDC publication, Youth Tobacco Cessation: A Guide for Making Informed Decisions.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

• The CMS Healthy Aging Demonstration Project on Smoking Cessation benefits tested three different smoking cessation benefit packages for Medicare recipients. DCCPS provided technical assistance in the protocol design and provided two updated evidence-based smoking cessation guides—one for older Americans and one for Spanish-speaking Americans.

American Cancer Society

• DCCPS partnered with the American Cancer Society and several cancer organizations in Poland to cosponsor a meeting to involve Eastern European countries in tobacco control. Eastern European clinicians and policy makers were educated on the importance of tobacco control to cancer control.

American Legacy Foundation

• DCCPS, CDC, the American Legacy Foundation, RWJF, and the Arizona Tobacco Education and Prevention Program sponsored a conference to discuss best practices and lessons learned among state cessation telephone quitlines. The goal was to share information and resources to make quitlines as effective as possible nationwide.



• The North American Quitline Consortium (comprised of the American Legacy Foundation, ACS, CDC, and other partners) aims to maximize collaboration among various telephone-based cessation efforts across the nation.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)

• RWJF, DCCPS, and CDC are co-funding the evaluation project "Helping Young Smokers Quit" to identify, survey, and evaluate existing youth smoking cessation programs. The results of this initiative will help fill a gap in knowledge about the types and elements of youth cessation programs that are currently being offered, whether they are effective, and will guide future research and programming. The University of Illinois at Chicago is conducting this research.

World Health Organization (WHO)

• The mission of the World Health Organization Tobacco Free Initiative Study Group for Tobacco Regulation (WHO-TFI) is to reduce the global burden of disease and death caused by tobacco, and to protect present and future generations from the harmful health consequences of tobacco consumption and tobacco smoke exposure. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Tobacco Product Regulation (SACTob) was established in 2000 to provide comprehensive scientific research, information, and recommendations to inform tobacco policies and regulation. In November 2003, SACTob was formalized from a scientific committee to a study group and renamed the Study Group for Tobacco Regulation (TobReg). TobReg provides a mechanism for reporting to WHO's governing bodies, and for drawing the attention of member states to WHO's efforts in this novel and complex area of tobacco control. NCI scientists have worked with SACTob/TobReg since November 2002 on the development of numerous recommendations aimed at improving public health and scientific research related to the effects of tobacco use.



• Since 2004, NCI has been collaborating with WHO’s Tobacco Laboratory Network (TobLabNet) to address research issues related to the establishment of global capacity for tobacco product testing and research. TobLabNet collaborates with other networks such as the Tobacco Harm Reduction Network and the European Network of Government Laboratories on Tobacco and Tobacco Products, and with researchers across the world to advance research on tobacco product testing.



• In 2006, NCI will be participating in the collaborative project between WHO-TFI and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) to establish upper limits of toxin emissions in cigarette smoke. To achieve the project goal, TobReg Working Group I has been convened and charged to develop criteria for selection of constituents based on availability of toxicity data, and variability of constituent levels by brand, and developing science-based recommendations for advancing knowledge on tobacco products and their regulation.

Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR)

On June 12-14, 2006, NCI co-sponsored the NIH State-of-the-Science Conference "Tobacco Use: Prevention, Cessation and Control" in collaboration with the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR). The goal of the conference was to gain a better understanding of how effective tobacco use prevention and treatment strategies can be developed and implemented across diverse segments of the population.

Noted experts presented research findings on the various aspects of tobacco control, discussing such issues as the role of culture in prevention and cessation programs, policy perspectives and interventions, consumer demand, strategies for specific populations, and health systems changes. In addition, several presenters discussed the need to create innovative prevention and cessation strategies that target specific populations, such as cultural groups (especially black and Latino populations), blue-collar workers, and individuals with low income.

A panel, composed of experts—none involved in tobacco research—from various fields was charged with developing an unbiased state-of-thescience statement that described the evidence currently available as well as the research needed. In developing its statement, the panel considered not only the scientific evidence presented by invited experts in tobacco-control research, a systematic literature review of some of the key aspects of the conference, and written comments submitted in advance of the conference, but also numerous comments and issues raised by members of the audience. More than 600 professionals in health care and health care policy attended the conference and were encouraged to provide public comment.

The panel concluded that tobacco use remains a very serious public health problem. Coordinated national strategies for tobacco prevention, cessation, and control are essential if the United States is to achieve the Healthy People 2010 goals. Most adult smokers want to quit, and effective interventions exist. However, only a small proportion of tobacco users try treatment. This gap represents a major national quality-of-care problem. Many cities and states have implemented effective policies to reduce tobacco use; public health and government leaders should learn from these experiences.

Because smokeless tobacco use may increase in the United States, it will be increasingly important to understand net population harms related to use of smokeless tobacco. Prevention, especially among youth, and cessation are the cornerstones of strategies to reduce tobacco use. Tobacco use is a critical and chronic problem that requires close attention from health care providers, health care organizations, and research support organizations.

The State-of-the Science Statement, as well as videocasts of each day of the conference, the program, and the abstract book, are all available on the NIH Consensus Development Program website at http://consensus.nih.gov/.

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Behavioral Research

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• "Improving Colorectal Cancer Screening Delivery, Utilization, and Outcomes: The State of the Science," was held in April 2005 by NCI and AHRQ, and involved approximately 50 investigators and leaders in the field of colorectal cancer screening research. The objectives of the meeting were to describe and discuss innovative approaches to implementing colorectal cancer screening at the patient, provider, and healthcare system levels; discuss progress toward evaluating colorectal cancer screening practice and outcomes at the population level; and identify major areas of research progress and gaps..

Office of Communications, Cancer Information Service (CIS)

• DCCPS supports communication activities for low-literacy and cancer patient populations, as well as smoking cessation, diet, and cancer screening interventions for the general public and targeted populations.

Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR)

• The NIH Health Maintenance Consortium (HMC) studies, co-funded by DCCPS and the American Heart Association, are a continuation of the Behavior Change Consortium (BCC) initiative. The HMC brings together behavioral health experts to understand the long-term maintenance of behavior change as well as effective strategies for achieving sustainable health promotion and disease prevention activities. Twenty-one funded investigators are exploring aspects of dietary change, exercise, smoking cessation, cancer screening, HIV prevention, and substance abuse.



• DCCPS provides support for several OBSSR initiatives, including research on cognition, emotion, stress, and pathways to health outcomes; linking pathways to education and health; social and cultural determinants of health; and mindbody interactions and health.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

• DCCPS is cosponsoring several program announcements with NICHD. Research areas include understanding mechanisms in health risk behavior change, partnerships for improving functional outcomes in individuals with chronic disease, and school-based obesity prevention strategies for children.

American Cancer Society
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS partners with ACS, USDA, and CDC on Project Team-Up, an implementation and evaluation partnership to increase evidence-based cervical and breast cancer interventions among rarely or never screened women. The project seeks to:
  • Optimize the transfer of effective evidence-based interventions into practice in eight states with the lowest breast and cervical cancer screening rates
  • Foster state partnerships to enhance the dissemination of evidence-based screening interventions
  • Conduct regional coaching meetings using a Planning Assistance Team model to assist states in adopting and implementing evidence-based screening interventions
  • Evaluate the partnership using process, impact, and outcome evaluation methods

Fogarty International Center

• DCCPS, in partnership with NIEHS and Fogarty, cosponsored and conducted a week long science writing workshop for journalists from Latin American countries and Spanish-language news outlets in the United States.

Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS)

• Since 2002, DCCPS has worked with PNIRS to facilitate science in the area of psychoneuroimmunology related to cancer control, including sponsorship of scientific symposia and roundtable discussions at PNIRS annual meetings. This society has been an instrumental stakeholder in the Biological Mechanisms of Psychosocial Effects on Disease (BiMPED) initiative. Also, PNIRS played a key role in the development of a comprehensive Web-based bibliography on psychoneuroimmunology, currently hosted on the DCCPS Web site.



• PNIRS published a supplemental issue of its official journal, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, dedicated to the science of the BiMPED initiative (February 2003, Volume 17, Supplement 1).

C-Change

• DCCPS staff had a leadership role in the planning and implementation of the Summit on the Primary Prevention and Early Detection of Cancer. Senior leaders served on the planning committee, cochaired the dissemination workgroup, and participated in several other workshops and workgroups.

National Library of Medicine
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Mental Health

• More than 400 participants attended a Critical Issues in eHealth Research conference to discuss the latest behavioral research concerning the use and impact of the Internet and other new communication technologies. The conference, cosponsored by several agencies and private entities, convened government scientists, academic researchers from a variety of disciplines, survey research scientists and practitioners from the private and public sectors, and students to discuss the state of the science of eHealth research theory, design, methodology, ethics, and evaluation.

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Energy Balance

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• NCI initiated and funded a June 2004 evidence report conducted by AHRQ, Effectiveness of Behavioral Interventions to Modify Physical Activity Behaviors in General Populations and Cancer Patients and Survivors. The report provides comprehensive, science-based information to individual health plans, providers, consumers, and the health care system in hopes of improving health care quality.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• DCCPS staff worked with colleagues from FDA to develop a dietary guidance statement to be used on food labels. The goal of the statement, "Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of cancer and other types of chronic diseases," is intended to encourage good nutrition among consumers.

U.S. Department ofAgriculture (USDA)

• DCCPS dietary surveillance efforts include collaborative analyses of nationally representative data collected by USDA and the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Food and nutrient intakes are monitored in the general population and among selected populations defined by gender, age, race, and ethnicity.



• The Dietary Guidelines for Americans is a joint DHHS/USDA policy and public education effort to provide advice about dietary recommendations for the general population. Federally-funded research, including NCI-funded research, is essential in forming the scientific basis for recommendations. NCI scientists participate in the development and review of the final Dietary Guidelines summary.



• DCCPS staff served as consultants to USDA in recent efforts to revise the Food Guide Pyramid.

American Cancer Society (ACS)

• NCI has collaborated with ACS to adapt two successful NCI-funded intervention studies to create "Body & Soul: A Celebration of Healthy Living," a nutrition program delivered through African-American churches. NCI and ACS also developed the Body & Soul Program Guide, which assists regional ACS offices in conducting the program and enrolling participants. This program is an example of effective research dissemination to communities, as well as successful research collaboration between NCI and ACS.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS has collaborated with CDC since October 2003 to develop a rating system that will evaluate state and local policies related to youth obesity. The purpose of the project is to develop the measurement tools (e.g., a reliable rating system) that can be used to monitor policies that can have an impact on the school environment as it relates to nutrition and physical activity. The monitoring system can be used by researchers to evaluate the effect of these policies on children’s nutritional and physical activity behaviors.

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Survivorship

American Cancer Society (ACS)

• DCCPS and ACS jointly support scientific conferences, such as the Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference.



• NCI and ACS partner to distribute the Facing Forward: Life After Cancer Treatment series of materials for cancer survivors, their families, and health care providers. These documents were created in response to feedback received from cancer survivors and their families.



• NCI collaborated with ACS to establish a working group that met in March 2003 to revisit the first Guide to Informed Choices for Cancer Survivors on Nutrition and Physical Activity, published in 2001. The group consisted of 21 members and was developed in response to the burgeoning growth in research relevant to nutrition and physical activity among cancer survivors. The result was a document published in the September/October 2003 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, called "Nutrition and Physical Activity During and After Cancer Treatment: An American Cancer Society Guide for Informed Choices." The report, designed for cancer survivors, their families, and their health care providers, was recently updated for re-release. It can be used as a guide for discussions between survivors and health care providers on issues such as diet, weight, physical activity, and nutritional complementary and alternative therapies.

CancerCare

• The Office of Cancer Survivorship (OCS), in collaboration with colleagues in the Office of Education and Special Initiatives and the Cancer Information Service at NCI, participates in a groundbreaking, three-part teleconference series launched in 2003 and entitled "Cancer Survivorship Series: Living With, Through, and Beyond Cancer." The OCS is an active partner with CancerCare, the Intercultural Cancer Council, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. The program is made possible by an educational grant from the Lance Armstrong Foundation and supporting funds from NCI.

President's Cancer Panel

• In 2003-2004, the President's Cancer Panel made cancer survivorship its major area of focus and coordinated with the Office of Cancer Survivorship to help set priorities and inform practice. Public hearings in the U.S. and Europe concentrated on issues including living beyond cancer, the survivorship of pediatric cancer survivors, challenges for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors, and meeting the needs of adult survivors. The Panel’s report identified both key issues and concerns for cancer survivors across the developmental spectrum and research and service gaps to inform the activities of the national cancer program.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• In partnership with the CDC, the OCS hosted a special dissemination meeting in conjunction with the 2004 Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference to identify the best approaches to cancer survivorship research dissemination to help close the gap between research discovery and program delivery, and to foster transdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships that support and enhance cancer survivorship research diffusion and dissemination.



• CDC colleagues established a cancer survivorship interbranch working group in 2004 that includes regular conference calls with OCS staff to coordinate efforts to support research, publish data, and disseminate information materials.



• The OCS works with the CDC and ACS to develop and deliver a cancer survivorship module for inclusion in 2006 training of state planners as part of their Comprehensive Cancer Control Leadership Institute.

Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF)

• In 2004, the NCI and ACS Biennial Cancer Survivorship Research Conference established a Survivor-Researcher Mentor Program. This exciting program was designed to help develop emerging leaders in the cancer advocacy community. The LAF provided travel scholarships for selected applicants to attend the 2004 conference and became a full partner in the 2006 biennial conference.

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Health Disparities

National Institute on Aging (NIA)
National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)

• The Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities are a collaborative effort cofunded by NIA, NIEHS, OBSSR, and DCCPS. Eight centers are conducting transdisciplinary research to examine how the social and physical environment, behavioral factors, and biologic pathways interact to determine health and disease in populations.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

• CMS will fund nine demonstration programs to reduce cancer-related health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities and geographically underserved (e.g., rural white, Pacific Islander) populations. NCI provides technical support to CMS to review the evidence for effective intervention models, collaborated to draft the RFP, plans to disseminate the RFP to cancer control partners, and assists with the evaluation.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

• A DCCPS collaboration with the USDA, CIS, CDC, and ACS has led to a pilot program that links CDC’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program staff with USDA’s Cooperative Extension agents, CIS partnership staff, and ACS division staff, to target counties with high breast cancer and cervical cancer mortality in eight states. The goal is to deliver evidence-based screening promotion programs to reduce health disparities.

U.S. Census Bureau

• In a collaboration begun in 1999 with the Census Bureau and other federal agencies, DCCPS is working to overcome the limited availability of sociodemographic information on death certificates and to obtain self-reported racial/ethnic data. This has involved the extension and expansion of the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study (NLMS) and linkage to the National Death Index. Other sponsoring agencies are the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute on Aging; and the National Center for Health Statistics. Data are available for major racial/ethnic census groups. The data for a 20-year mortality follow-up from 1979 to 1998 were obtained in 2002, and Phase II expansion of the NLMS data will continue through 2008.



• Another project under development will link SEER to the NLMS to add socioeconomic data at the individual level that cannot be obtained from the SEER database itself. Researchers will use the combined database for estimation of differentials in cancer incidence, survival, and tumor characteristics according to self-reported race/ethnicity, marital status, education, income, occupation and industry, residence, nativity/immigrant status, smoking status, health status, and availability of health insurance.

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Dissemination and Diffusion

Office of Communications, Cancer Information Service (CIS)

• DCCPS has collaborated with the Office of Communications and Education to develop and disseminate a train-the-trainer course on Using What Works that teaches users how to adapt research-tested intervention programs at the local community level.



• DCCPS and the Cancer Information Services (CIS) Partnership Program staff have been working with ACS regional planners, CDC National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program staff, and USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service to build and sustain partnerships in six states through the Team-Up Cancer Screening Saves Lives project. This project encourages the adoption and implementation of evidence-based screening programs to reach those populations of women at greatest risk for cervical and breast cancer.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

• NCI has worked with AHRQ to develop a program announcement for Practice-Based Research Networks (PBRNs) and the Translation of Research Into Practice (TRIP). DCCPS currently co-funds research into methods of disseminating efficacious cancer control interventions. A second round of applications is now being solicited, and one successful test of screening dissemination was funded by AHRQ after a July 2004 review.



• DCCPS has partnered with AHRQ on a Webbased tool, Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T., designed to help in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based cancer control interventions. The Guide for Clinical Preventive Services is linked through STEP 3 on Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T. Additionally, researchers from AHRQ are listed on STEP 2 of Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T. to enhance research-practice partnerships.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• DCCPS and CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) have developed, reviewed, and are working jointly to disseminate the cancer chapter of the Guide to Community Preventive Services.



• Through an interagency agreement, NCI and CDC’s DCPC co-fund the Cancer Prevention Research Network within CDC’s Prevention Research Center program. The effort tests methods of disseminating research findings into practice, including tobacco cessation and screening for colorectal, cervical, and breast cancer.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

• Through an interagency agreement, DCCPS works with SAMHSA’s National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (NREPP) to review evidence-based programs posted on the Research-tested Intervention Programs (RTIPs) Web site. RTIPs serves as a doorway to new evidence-based programs that can aid communities in better delivering evidence-based interventions to reduce their cancer burden.

American Cancer Society (ACS)

• ACS, along with NCI and CDC, developed in every ACS division on a regional basis, leadership training programs called the Comprehensive Cancer Control Leadership Institutes for the States, tribes, and territories.



• DCCPS has collaborated with ACS to adapt two successful NCI-funded intervention studies to create "Body & Soul: A Celebration of Healthy Living," a nutrition program to be delivered through African American churches. NCI and ACS also developed the Body & Soul Program Guide, which assists regional ACS offices in enrolling participants and conducting the program. The program is an example of effective research dissemination to communities, as well as successful research collaboration between NCI and ACS.



• As part of a public/private effort, DCCPS collaborates with ACS, SAMHSA, CDC, AHRQ, on a Web-based tool, Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T., for comprehensive cancer control planning, implementation, and evaluation.



• ACS, along with NCI, CDC, and C-Change, has been working to develop Comprehensive Cancer Control Leadership Forums, with a focus on cancer control planning and implementation in Latin America. The first forum was held in 2006 in Mexico City and brought together cancer control leaders from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay.

C-Change

• DCCPS, along with CDC and ACS, work with C-Change to advance the Comprehensive Cancer Control Leadership Institutes, with a focus on training, implementation, and evaluation.



• DCCPS, CDC, and ACS are providing consultation to the C-Change State Cancer Plans Team. Part of this effort is to facilitate an advocacy role for C-Change to motivate states to take action, and to provide states with technical assistance to implement their state cancer plans.

Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and the American Legacy Foundation

• DCCPS has partnered with LAF and Legacy to develop PRIME (Program Resources for Implementation, Management, and Evaluation). PRIME is a Web-based tool that will facilitate access to funding resources to assist with the implementation, management, and evaluation of evidence-based cancer control programs. PRIME will be included on STEP 5 of Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T.. LAF and Legacy are piloting the tool, which will launch in 2007. Other foundations that support cancer control service program funding will be identified with this tool. Links to regular funding opportunities and interactive templates of concept and grant applications will be provided.

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