Reducing Cancer Disparities: Three CDC-Funded Projects on Racism and Cancer Care

CDC funded three research organizations to learn what works to advance health equity in cancer. The projects are among the first to address systemic racism as a key driver of health inequities in communities of color. CDC researchers work alongside each team to test community-based strategies — how well they work, for whom and why — so that lessons can reduce disparities elsewhere.

The projects serve three cancer priorities: reduce preventable cancers, make sure everyone gets the right screening at the right time, and help survivors live longer, healthier lives.

1. Quitting tobacco in Jackson, Mississippi

Many Black people in Jackson smoke — often to cope with systemic racism, poverty and stress — and tobacco causes cancer and other illness. The nonprofit Cicatelli Associates, Inc., with NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Mississippi firm Fahrenheit Creative Group, is studying Project BAT (Black people Against Tobacco), which:

• refers people who use tobacco to cessation services;
• creates resources to help people stop smoking;
• educates the community about tobacco's harms;
• explains how other communities have restricted tobacco in public places;
• informs decision makers about policies that reduce tobacco use.

2. Screening in New York City

Screening checks for cancer before symptoms appear, when treatment is likely to work best. NYC CONNECT (New York City Cancer Outreach Network in Neighborhoods for Equity and Community Translation) builds on an NYU program of patient navigators — health workers trained to help people overcome barriers to care. It aims to:

• reduce systemic racism where people live, work and play, in food access and in health care, among marginalized groups including Black, Asian and Hispanic people;
• study how well navigators raise screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer;
• study how reducing systemic racism affects community-clinical screening efforts;
• share strategies that work.

Partners include the NYU School of Medicine, the NYU Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network collaborating center, the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, NYU's Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center and the Food Bank for New York City.

3. Supporting survivors in Washington, D.C.

This project focuses on Black breast and prostate cancer survivors — improving care coordination, meeting survivors' needs, reducing disparities, and raising awareness of systemic racism in medicine. It aims to:

• create one screening and referral process across three cancer centers in the Washington area;
• give doctors and patients the information needed for high-quality care for everyone;
• learn how community health workers can find survivors who need support and connect them to resources;
• train doctors and staff to recognize and avoid racism and to be anti-racist.

The MedStar Health Research Institute leads it with researchers from George Washington, Howard and Georgetown universities.

Sources

Based on "Reducing Cancer Disparities Through Partnerships," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The page's stock photograph is not reproduced.