Future Direction: Climate Change

Establishing Climate Change and Cancer as a New Priority Area

DCCPS has developed and joined several funding opportunities designed to establish and grow research on climate change and cancer. Funding opportunities span areas of research across the division, including supporting research on the long-term effects of disasters on healthcare systems (PA-20-172) and understanding the impacts of climate change across the cancer control continuum (PAR-23-153). DCCPS has also joined other opportunities led by the NIH Climate and Health Working Group, including the following:

• Long-Term Effects of Disasters on Health Care Systems Serving Health Disparity Populations (R01- Clinical Trial Optional) (PA-20-172)
• Impacts of Climate Change Across the Cancer Control Continuum (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) (PAR-23-153)
• Research Coordinating Center to Support Climate Change and Health Community of Practice (U24 – Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (RFA-ES-22-003)
• Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Climate Change and Health (NOT-ES-22-006)
• Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Climate Change and Health Administrative Supplements (NOT-HD-23-006)
• Exploratory Grants for Climate Change and Health Research Center Development (P20 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-ES-23-007)

Collecting and Exploring New Data Linkages

Understanding the associations between the environment, climate change, and cancer requires strong data sources and the ability to link relevant environmental data sets to cancer outcomes and cancer-related health behaviors. The DCCPS Surveillance Research Program has conducted a landscape analysis of environmental data sets that can be linked to SEER data to advance research in both cancer etiology and cancer survivorship. In the Behavioral Research Program, the Health Information National Trends Survey® (HINTS) added an item on climate change harm perceptions and will field additional items regarding climate and the environment in the next HINTS iteration. To understand what data sources exist for self-reported experiences with climate and the environment, including natural disasters and environmental exposures, a landscape analysis is being conducted to capture whether and what types of items are measured in existing federal surveys.

Collaboration and Outreach

DCCPS participates in the NIH-wide Climate Change and Health Working Group, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/NCI Cancer and the Environment Working Group, the Intra-NIH Disaster Interest Group, and the federal government-wide Interagency Crosscutting Group on Climate Change and Human Health. DCCPS also hosted one of the eight scholars selected for the inaugural cohort of NIH Climate and Health Scholars, who is helping the division identify priorities in climate change and cancer. To stimulate scientific discussion, raise awareness about NCI’s interests in climate change and cancer, and highlight NCI-supported research, several webinars have been conducted, including the Healthcare Delivery Research Program-led series “Disasters & Cancer Care Delivery Science.” DCCPS has also organized several panels on climate change and cancer at national meetings, including at the American Society of Preventive Oncology conferences in 2022 and 2023, the 2022 Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health, and the 2023 Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Annual Meeting. DCCPS also participates in special interest groups (SIG) developed by professional societies, including the SBM’s Climate Change and Health SIG and the American Psychosomatic Society’s Climate Change, Sustainability, and Health SIG. The Cognitive, Affective, and Social Processes in Health Research (CASPHR) group also hosted an internal meeting on climate change and cancer.

Planning for the Future

Health threats from climate change and climate-related extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity, and climate change disproportionately affects NIH-designated health disparities populations. DCCPS aims to address these issues by building a portfolio of climate and cancer research, increasing research expertise across the population sciences to strengthen the field of climate impacts on cancer, and contributing to an actionable evidence base useful for informing public health practice, policy, and care delivery. Future plans include identifying and addressing new exposures, including the effects of wildfires, flooding, and extreme heat, by expanding measures and methods development to enable more precise, accurate measurement and modeling of cumulative exposures of climate change on cancer risk, health behaviors, and outcomes.

A key priority is to support research that promotes health equity, including identifying and addressing cumulative exposures and disruptions to cancer prevention and cancer treatment services in environmental justice communities to prevent exposures, ameliorate harmful effects among those exposed, develop plans to enhance care delivery in the face of climate change effects, and improve cancer survivor outcomes. Understanding the impacts of climate change across the cancer control continuum is key to developing and implementing interventions to mitigate or reduce harmful consequences at the population level.