Ongoing Global Health Projects

Bob Croyle Serving as Interim Director for CGH
DCCPS Director Bob Croyle is currently serving as Interim Director of NCI’s Center for Global Health (CGH), as NCI Director Ned Sharpless begins the search for a new permanent director of the center, which coordinates NCI’s international research collaborations.  Read Dr. Croyle’s CGH Spotlight Blog to learn more about the planned steps to prepare the center for new leadership.

IARC Caribbean Regional Hub for Cancer Registration
The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) officially launched the IARC Caribbean Regional Hub for Cancer Registration on June 12, 2018, during the meeting of the Chief Medical Officers of Health in St. Kitts and Nevis by Freddie Bray, Head of IARC’s Cancer Surveillance Section, together with James Hospedales, Executive Director of CARPHA. Damali Martin represented NCI at this event as well as contributed to the cancer sessions of the CARHA scientific conference.

The IARC Caribbean Cancer Registry Hub is a partnership between IARC, CARPHA, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NCI, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR). NCI and CDC have provided direct funding support as well as technical expertise (along with NAACCR) for numerous activities performed under the Hub, including technical training workshops, assessments of cancer registry operations in four countries, and statistical analysis of cancer registry data for two registries.

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Global Health Research and Training Initiatives

US Embassy Science Fellowship, Warsaw, Poland
Last Spring, Mark Parascandola of the Tobacco Control Research Branch completed a 3-month Embassy Science Fellowship based at the US Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. The primary goal of the fellowship was to provide technical assistance and develop US-Poland scientific collaborations around air pollution and health. Dr. Parascandola met with a wide variety of experts in health and air quality measurement around Poland. He developed ongoing research projects on air pollution and lung cancer with experts at the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in Warsaw and with the Faculty of Public Health in Bytom, part of the Medical University of Silesia. He also contributed to Embassy Warsaw’s public diplomacy efforts by participating in public forums and sharing information about US programs and research related to air pollution and cancer. In April, Dr. Parascandola was an invited keynote speaker at the Second International Congress on Patient Empowerment, organized by the Instytut Komunikacji Zdrowotnej (Institute for Health Communication), with support from the Ministry of Health. He also served as a speaker and faculty member at a training workshop for journalists organized by Journalists for Health. On April 18, along with Warsaw Polytechnic University epidemiologist Professor Artur Badyda, he participated in the City of Warsaw’s monthly “Wednesdays with Experts,” series, leading a lively discussion and Q&A on air pollution realities and challenges in Poland and the US.

US Embassy Science Fellowship, Beijing, China
Sylvia Chou served as an Embassy Science Fellow at the US Embassy in Beijing/NCI Beijing Office from May 8 to June 1 to explore, develop, and facilitate bilateral collaborations in health communication research and practice. She met with China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), China’s National Cancer Center, and academic partners in Beijing Normal University and Peking Union Medical College, and she planned lectures on topics including behavioral science in cancer control, cancer communication and social media, and patient-centered communication in cancer care.  She delivered a public lecture at the Beijing American Center titled “WeChat as a disruptive innovation: benefits and risks for health communication,” using data from 2017 Health Information National Trends Survey-China (HINTS-China), adapted from the NCI HINTS Survey. Dr. Chou is continuing her research collaborations with China on the use of technology (mobile and social media) in health communication.  She also aims to plan an US-China joint grantsmanship workshop with staff from NCI’s Office of Cancer Genomics (OCG). For more information, contact Dr. Chou at chouws@mail.nih.gov.

Cancer Registry Workshop
Damali Martin, Goncalo Forjaz de Lacerda, and Brenda Edwards are working with the IARC Caribbean Cancer Registry Hub at CARPHA (Caribbean Public Health Agency) and NAACCR (North American Central Cancer Registries) to host a cancer registry workshop on October 22-25, 2018, at Shady Grove. Participants from 11 Caribbean cancer registries are invited to attend the workshop designed to provide basic and detailed training on recommended standard cancer registry procedures and the assessment of cancer registry data.

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Noteworthy Reports

The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control Monograph Executive Summary Now in Six Languages
The Executive Summary for the 21st volume of the Tobacco Control Monograph series, The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control, is now available in the six WHO languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. The monograph was developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization and examines the current research and evidence base surrounding the economics of tobacco control worldwide.

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Meeting Reports

Intersection of Technology, Citizen Science, and Physical Activity in Latin American Populations Summit
David Berrigan and Daniela Seminara attended and spoke at the Summit on the Intersection of Technology, Citizen Science, and Physical Activity in Latin American Populations, September 11-12, 2018, in Santa Monica, California. The summit addressed challenges and opportunities in research and public health with special attention to the Latin American context. This activity builds on collaboration between CDC, NCI, National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR), and Latin America focused on physical activity as a key element of addressing unhealthy consequences of changes in diet and increases in sedentary behavior occurring in Latin America.

Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco - Europe
Carolyn Reyes-Guzman attended the SRNT Europe 18th Annual Conference, “Smoking and Disease,” from September 6-8, 2018, in Munich, Germany. The mission of the SRNT Europe is to stimulate the generation of new knowledge regarding nicotine and tobacco at various levels of research. Dr. Reyes-Guzman presented on a poster titled “Light and nondaily cigarette smoking: a changing population of tobacco users,” and another poster titled “Long-term nondaily cigarette smoking in the US: using census data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS).”

Karolinska Institutet Delegates Visit NCI
On August 8, three delegates from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, visited with DCCPS program staff, the NCI Division of Extramural Activities, and the NCI Center for Global Health (CGH). The purpose of the visit was to learn about NCI research programs and priorities, to understand the NCI grant funding processes, and to discuss mechanisms for multi-national data collection and sharing. Karolinska Institutet participates in a number of ongoing research collaborations with NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) and Center for Cancer Research (CCR) investigators and with US-based NCI grantees, building on Sweden’s strengths in population-level health data collection.

NCI Summer Curriculum
DCCPS staff participated in the NCI Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention by giving lectures, serving as mentors and presenting posters. The course included over 50 international participants from over 20 countries. Brenda Edwards, on behalf of Damali Martin, Goncalo Forjaz de Lacerda and colleagues working with the IARC Caribbean Cancer Registry Hub, and Mark Parascandola presented on NCI international activities in the July 17, 2018, Posters Session of the NCI Summer Curriculum.

Visit to King’s College and Masterclass on Implementation Science
Sarah Kobrin and Erica Breslau visited King’s College in London, England, from July 15-20, 2018. While there, they attended a Masterclass on Implementation Science, where they presented updates on NCI funding opportunities in cancer, implementation science, and health care delivery. They also participated in scientific sessions on implementation strategies, theories, models, and frameworks; learning health care systems; bridging the gap between research and policy; and getting implementation research published. Drs. Kobrin and Breslau met with scientific experts from the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the US to discuss funding opportunities in cancer care delivery and implementation science, and they led discussions with King’s College faculty about multilevel methods and interventions.

CGH-BRP Collaborations
Staff from the division’s Behavioral Research Program (BRP) Health Behaviors Research Branch (HBRB) met with staff from NCI’s Center for Global Health (CGH) in July for the second of a series of meetings to promote information exchanges and collaboration between the groups. Susan Czajkowski, Tanya Agurs-Collins, David Berrigan, Kara Hall, and Frank Perna presented information about branch activities relevant to CGH. The groups discussed plans for future collaborations in areas of mutual interest, including how HBRB can increase its international activities and focus, which is a key objective in the HBRB Strategic Plan.

Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Annual Scientific Conference
As noted in the Ongoing Health Projects section, Damali Martin provided remarks on behalf of NCI at the launch of the IARC Regional Hub for Cancer Registration for the Caribbean on June 12, 2018, during the 26th Meeting of Chief Medical Officers of Health in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis. NCI is a key collaborator for implementation of the Hub within the Caribbean region. Dr. Martin also presented on the role of NCI for cancer control in the Caribbean including ”NCI’s activities for cancer control and prevention in the Caribbean“ at the CARPHA Annual Scientific Conference and served as moderator for one of the scientific platform sessions on cancer research in the Caribbean.

International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Meeting
Tanya Agurs-Collins presented research titled “Racial differences in physical activity and diet adherence among older prostate cancer survivors” at the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) Meeting on June 6, 2018, in Hong Kong. The presentation was part of the ISBNPA Cancer Prevention and Management Special Interest Group.

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Upcoming Events

World Cancer Congress
Susan Czajkowski and Bill Klein will be traveling to the World Cancer Congress, being held October 1-4, 2018, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Dr. Czajkowski was invited by Sudha Sivaram, chief of the NCI Center for Global Health’s Public Health Research Networks Branch, to chair a symposium titled “Behavior change interventions in cancer control.” She will also present on behavioral risk factors for interventions in cancer prevention. Dr. Klein will participate in a symposium titled “Implementation science to prevent cancer – the global picture,” where he will present on the impact that NCI’s research investments in behavioral science related to cancer control have had on the development of effective policies at the national, state, and local levels.

International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress
Rick Troiano will attend the 7th International Society for Physical Activity and Health Congress (ISPAH) in London, UK, on October 15-17, 2018, where he will participate on a panel to discuss national and international physical activity guidelines and present at the meeting of the Sedentary Behavior Council. He will also attend the ISPAH Harmonisation Satellite in Cambridge, UK, on October 18 to discuss retrospective harmonization of physical activity and sedentary behavior data globally.

Colombian Department of Sport, Recreation, and Physical Activity
Cancer Prevention Fellow Lilian Perez was recently invited by the Colombian Department of Sport, Recreation, and Physical Activity (COLDEPORTES) to deliver talks on physical activity and cancer at their October 2018 short course for researchers and practitioners in Bogota, Colombia.

NCI-CRUK Workshop on Implementing Digital Health Interventions for Cancer Prevention
The division’s Behavioral Research Program is collaborating with Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to convene a “Sandpit” workshop (i.e., ideas lab) on October 28-31, 2018, in Potomac, MD. Workshop participants will form multidisciplinary teams to generate novel ideas for advancing cancer prevention through the effective implementation of digital health tools. They also will receive guidance on applying for seed funding from CRUK to test the feasibility of their ideas.

International Association of Cancer Registries Conference
Abstracts submitted by NCI DCCPS staff, their collaborating partners, and scientific leaders at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for the IARC Caribbean Cancer Registry Hub have been accepted for presentation at the 2018 International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR) conference being held in Arequipa, Peru, on November 13-15, 2018. The 2019 IACR conference will be held as part of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) 2019 Conference on June 8-15 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

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