Summer 2021 Issue

Welcome to our Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) quarterly newsletter. The goal in producing this newsletter is to keep our members informed and involved. We are highlighting opportunities for collaborations, new funding opportunities, new grants and promotions, new members, and upcoming seminars and events. We always welcome your suggestions and contributions for future issues. Past issues of the CPC Newsletter can be found online here at the Rutgers Cancer Institute's website.

Dr. Alemayehu will serve as the Assistant Director for the Shared Resource.

Dr. Ferrante will serve as the new Qualitative Research Scientific Director.

For more information, visit the Population Science Research Support page.

To discuss your project needs, please reach out to popsciresource@cinj.rutgers.edu

Reminder to check out https://rutgers.infoready4.com/#cinj for internal funding opportunities, several of which are relevant to CPC with the earliest deadline approaching on October 15, 2021.  

November 15, 2021. Kathryn E. Weaver, PhD, Professor, Social Sciences and Health Policy, Wake Forest School of Medicine

Host: Anita Kinney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FABMR (CHE)

For more information on these and other meetings, click the button below to view the full CINJ Research Meetings and Events Calendar.

2021-2022. MPI: Katie A. Devine, PhD, MPH and Jeffery McLaughlin (Radiant Creative Group, LLC)

Title: “MYH 2.0: A Digital Experience to Improve Survivorship among AYA Cancer Survivors." 

Sponsor: NCI - SBIR Mechanism (subcontract)

Title: "Multimodal profiling of neurons in 3D human cortical organoids using patch-seq"

Sponsor: NIH/NIMH - R21

2021-2026. MPI: Shawna Hudson, PhD (Contact PI) and Benjamin Crabtree

Title: " Adapting and implementing evidence-based breast cancer follow-up in primary care"

Sponsor: NCI - R01

Wei Vivian Li, PhD presented "MAAPER for Model-based Analysis of Alternative Polyadenylation Using 3’end Reads."

Anita Kinney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FABMR, presented "The role of hereditary cancer risk perception in defensive coping."

Julianne Ani, MPH presented "FAMILY members' roles in decisions about hereditary cancer genetic testing in minority populations." Senior author: Anita Kinney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FABMR

Carolyn Heckman, PhD & Monika Janda, PhD, were Invited Keynote Speakers and presented "Digital Interventions: Successes and failures in skin cancer prevention and early detection across the continents."

Shawna Hudson, PhD, presented "Cancer Survivorship Healthcare Delivery: Challenges and Opportunities Integrating Primary Care."

April 15, 2021. Yonaira Rivera, PhD, MPH, provided oral and written testimony at the hearing “Shot of Truth: Communicating Trusted Vaccine Information” held by the Subcommittee on Communications, Media, & Broadband of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation.

May 13, 2021. Yonaira Rivera, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Communication. presented, “Understanding the impact of engagement with cancer (mis)information among Latino Facebook users,” as a Zoom invited speaker for Northwestern University’s Latinx Digital Media Virtual Seminar Series Spring 2021.

June 30, 2021. Elisa Bandera, MD, PhD, presented “Evaluating the role of obesity in breast cancer among minority and medically underserved populations." at Meyer Cancer Center Director’s Seminar Series, Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY.

August 11, 2021. Wei Vivian Li, PhD, presented "Comparing Cost-sensitive and Neyman-Pearson Frameworks for Asymmetric Binary Classification" at the Joint Statistical Meetings 2021 (Virtual)

September 21, 2021. Anita Kinney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FABMR and Sharon R. Pine, PhD, presented, "Maximizing Catchment Area-related Research in Cancer Pharmacology" to the Cancer Pharmacology Research Program.

September 24, 2021. Gary Kwok, PhD presented, "Leveraging Meditation Mobile Application in Survivorship Care among Adolescent and Young Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer."

July 29, 2021. Lois E. Rockson, PhD, MPH, MAEd, SCT (ASCP) presented "Cervical Cancer Screening among Garifuna Women."

September 15, 2021. Dr. Melinda Irwin, PhD, MPH, Associate Dean of Research and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), Associate Cancer Center Director, Population Sciences, Co-Leader, Cancer Prevention and Control, Yale Cancer Center, Deputy Director (Public Health), Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, presented "Is it Time to Implement Lifestyle Interventions in the Oncology Clinic?"

Host: Sharon Manne, PhD (CPC)

September 16, 2021. Dr. Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, Director of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship at the University of Alabama Birmingham presented "Prediction and Prevention of Treatment-related Complications in Cancer Survivors."

Hosts: Sharon Manne, PhD (CECS) & Andrew Evens, DO, MSc, FACP (CECS)

Shawna Hudson, PhD, Professor, Research Division Chief and Henry Rutgers Chair of Family Medicine and Community Health, Director, Center Advancing Research and Evaluation for Patient-Centered Care (CARE-PC), Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School was inducted to the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance 2021 Hall of Fame.

Bo (Bonnie) Qin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey was invited to and joined the editorial board of Journal of Nutritional Science.

Yonaira Rivera, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Communication, was a recipient of the Loan Repayment Program in Health Disparities Research, NCI/NIH (2021)

Yonaira Rivera, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Communication, was an honoree in recognition for testifying before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband regarding the impact of misinformation on vaccine hesitancy among Latinx communities, Rutgers University’s Chancellor & Provost 2020-2021 Celebration of Faculty Excellence Award Ceremony (May, 2021)

Katie A. Devine, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and Section Chief of Pediatric Population Science, Outcomes and Disparities Research was promoted to Associate Professor. (July, 2021)

R. Kelly Kohler, PhD, MSPH, facilitated and presented at multiple COVID Vaccination Ambassador Trainings in collaboration with United Way's Project Ready with Greater Newark Health Care Coalition in August and September as part of Essex County's Equitable Vaccine Initiative.

Rutgers Family Medicine and Community Health Expert, Shawna Hudson, PhD, co-authored National Academies Report on Primary Care, titled Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care.

Read the full article in Rutgers Today.

COE - Rapid Grant/Protocol Review by Citizen Scientists (Community Engagement Café)

October 6-8, 2021. 14TH AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved

October 24-27, 2021. APHA 2021, Creating the Healthiest Nation: Strengthening Social Connectedness

November 15-19, 2021. IPVC 2021, The 34th International Papillomavirus Conference & Basic Science, Clinical and Public Health Workshops

December 14-16, 2021. 14th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health

Please acknowledge the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) in publications that resulted from any CCSG support such as: Pilot Award/New Investigator funds, use of Office of Human Research Services (OHRS), and/or use of any supported Shared Resource. Publications that acknowledge the CCSG must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy

The term “catchment area” is often not immediately familiar to members of the Research Programs. In the simplest terms, the catchment area is the geographic area served by an institution. Rutgers Cancer Institute’s catchment area is the entire state of New Jersey, a place with great racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and other diversity and multiple cancer health equity issues. As the only NCI-designated cancer center in New Jersey, Rutgers Cancer Institute’s catchment area work includes establishing and aligning research priorities based upon the populations and communities for which there are the greatest disparities in cancer incidence, morbidity, and/or mortality.

Research relevant to the catchment area applies to basic, translational, and clinical researchers as much as it does to those in population science. For example, basic laboratory research on lung cancer, efforts to engage more diverse patient populations in cancer clinical trials, and genomics research on hereditary cancer could all be considered catchment area relevant, for they align with research priorities set forth by Rutgers Cancer Institute to promote cancer health equity and reduce disparities. Researchers who consider their current and future research endeavors from the catchment area perspective may find new opportunities for funding and collaboration, as well as added significance to their already important work. This new section of the newsletter will serve to inform and link the Basic and Clinical Research Program members with such resources and opportunities.

Those interested in learning more about catchment area alignment, and who may already be doing catchment area relevant research, are encouraged to contact Rita Musanti, PhD, APN-BC, Assistant Director for Community Outreach and Engagement at rita.musanti@rutgers.edu

For a full list of recent manuscripts, abstracts, and presentations please visit the Researcher Profiles webpage.

Associate Editor & Production Manager: Michelle Moscato and LaTasha Pugh