Ongoing Global Health Projects

Global Tobacco Control Research

Staff of the Tobacco Control Research Program have been meeting over the past year with staff of the Research and Training Branch in NCI’s Center for Global Health to cross-share information on global tobacco control efforts. More recently, the two groups have been focused on defining shared global tobacco control research priorities and strategic planning. Specific priority areas are being developed and include a goal to brainstorm ideas for potential co-funding opportunities. Carolyn Reyes-Guzman oversees the planning and hosting of these bi-monthly meetings.

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Global Health Research and Training Initiatives

US Embassy Science Fellowship

Carolyn Reyes-Guzman departed for France in late September until December on a US Embassy Science Fellowship to work with the French Government, through the US Embassy in Paris. As part of this detail, Dr. Reyes-Guzman interfaced primarily with the French National Cancer Institut (INCa), as well as with the US Embassy in Paris Environment, Science, Technology and Health unit and US Consulates in Lyon and Strasbourg. The fellowship consisted of leading a landscape analysis of France’s Decennial 2021-2030 National Cancer Plan (NCP) in the context of tobacco control. This analysis supports strategies within the NCP, identifying gaps in tobacco control funded research and provides recommendations for future priorities in the second half of the Decennial plan. Her work also involved leveraging existing US Mission partnerships in France to advance progress on cancer control. During her time at INCa, Dr. Reyes-Guzman has also learned about ongoing efforts to build up workgroup activities under the G7 Cancer Initiative, which includes several NCI contributors. Dr. Reyes-Guzman will share her experience at a Behavioral Research Program All Hands, open to the division, on January 28, 2025.

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Noteworthy Reports

• Neal Freedman co-authored the paper “One-carbon metabolism biomarkers and upper gastrointestinal cancer in the Golestan Cohort Study,” published in International Journal of Cancer, and the paper “Low-intensity daily smoking and mortality risk among Mexican women,” published in Tobacco Control.
• Katie Heley, Robin Vanderpool, Dana Chomenko, Amanda Klein, and Vidya Vedham (National Institute of Mental Health) authored a Center for Global Health spotlight blog, entitled “The crucial role of research in addressing global cancer stigma.”
• Robin Vanderpool and Katie Heley authored a DCEG Inclusivity Minute on “Global cancer stigma,” which includes recommendations for researchers, resources, and more.
• A project led by Jackie Payne, Alcohol Warning Labels Risk Messaging Experiments, was highlighted in a recent The Guardian article “Children vaping and alcohol labels: takeaways from the World Cancer Congress.” The specific highlight reads, “A separate study by US academics on different types of alcohol warning labels demonstrated the difficulties of communicating the links between drinking and cancer. Although a message of ‘no safe level’ of alcohol consumption and cancer increased awareness of the risks of drinking the most, it was also the least believed message, when compared with ‘the less you drink, the lower the risk’ or ‘the more you drink, the higher the risk’.”’

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Meeting Reports

McGill International Palliative Care Congress

Paul Han was an invited participant in a panel on “Navigating serious illness in the midst of uncertainty, ” October 15-18, 2024, at the McGill International Palliative Care Congress in Montreal, Canada. The panel brought together clinicians and researchers from medicine, nursing, and health policy for a diverse and nuanced discussion on uncertainty in serious illness, including challenges faced by the field and opportunities for ways forward.

Webinar: “The confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in HIV-positive individuals diagnoses with cancer”

Robin Vanderpool and Becky Ferrer hosted a pre-application webinar on September 24, 2024, for the two companion funding opportunities focused on “The confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in  HIV-positive individuals diagnoses with cancer.” Learn more and view the recording here. This funding opportunity aims to support research that expands the current understanding of the confluence of cancer stigma and HIV stigma in people with HIV (PWH) diagnosed with cancer; assesses the impact of these two converging stigmas on cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; leverages stigma reduction interventions at multiple levels to intervene on modifiable mechanisms of stigma that contribute to negative cancer outcomes among PWH with cancer; and promotes research in domestic and international contexts, focusing on regions in which the HIV-cancer burden is elevated. 

International Cancer Education Conference

Robin Vanderpool gave a keynote presentation, entitled “The influence of the cancer communication environment on people, places, and progress,” at the International Cancer Education Conference (ICEC) in Lexington, Kentucky, on September 25, 2024.

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Upcoming Events

Oslo Communication in Healthcare Education and Research Annual Meeting

Paul Han and Jackie Payne, alongside a collaborator at UW-Madison, had two abstracts accepted for presentations at the Oslo Communication in Healthcare Education and Research annual meeting (OCHER 2025) to be held January 8-10, 2025, in Oslo, Norway. Abstracts include

• “Uncertainty ‘warning shots’: a persuasive device in end-of-life conversations?”
• “An uncertain recovery versus certain hospital bliss: how uncertainty and certainty are used to persuade surrogates to discontinue treatment.”  

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