PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania Prevention Research Center (UPenn PRC) has been awarded a five-year, $6.5 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop, test, and evaluate in collaboration with the Philadelphia-area community. won gold. Solutions focused on public health problems, especially cancer.
The center is led by Karen Glantz, Ph.D., MPH, Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor and George A. Weiss University Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Nursing. Oluwadamilola “Laura” Fayanju, MD, MSc, MPHS, Helen O. Dickens Presidential Associate Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and Chief of Breast Surgery at Penn Medicine. Meghan Lanefall, MD, MSHP, David E. Longnecker Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Director of the Penn Implementation Science Center (PISCE) Leonard Davis At the Institute of Health Economics.
CDC’s PRC program funds academic research centers that conduct community-based prevention and public health research across the United States. UPenn PRC is one of 20 centers funded by CDC in the 2024-2029 cycle.
Supporting older people with cancer to choose the care that is right for them
The signature effort of the UPenn PRC will be a five-year core research project. Penn researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC), are working with physicians to improve early-stage breast, rectal, and lung cancer at an advanced age. Conduct research focused on improving communication with patients.
“We are excited about this ambitious new core research project, which will draw on expertise from clinicians and surgeons, geriatrics experts, social work, communication sciences, psychology and epidemiology to improve We’re working on an issue that’s particularly important to the world: cancer,” Glantz said. “Treatment decisions for this age group include factors such as frailty, cognitive function, drug use, financial toxicity, other effects of living with cancer, ability to perform daily tasks and activities, personal values, family Many factors can influence it, including the level of support.
Worldwide, the number of new cancer diagnoses in adults aged 65 and older is expected to double in the coming decades. However, patients, caregivers, and their care teams lack the tools to have effective shared decision-making conversations that incorporate care guidelines and the patient’s overall goals and preferences. is common. As a result, some patients end up deciding on treatment plans without fully understanding the potential impact on their health and life. Finally, there is evidence that racial and ethnic minority patients have less satisfactory experiences with shared decision-making than white patients.
This hybrid effects implementation study, titled BEACON (Best Case/Worst Case Equity-Centered Adaptation for Communication with Elderly Cancer Patients), is a best-case/worst-case decision-making framework. , that is, to assess the impact of a shared decision-making tool designed to: Help patients make treatment decisions based on what’s important to them. This study aimed to enroll a diverse group of more than 500 adults aged 65 years and older diagnosed with stage I or II breast, rectal, or lung cancer and undergoing pretreatment surgical consultation. Masu. The UPenn PRC team works with a broad group of people important to patient care, including care teams, caregivers, and community health workers. The team will also leverage cutting-edge technology, including deploying patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and experience measurements directly through the electronic health record.
“By collaborating with an excellent multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team to adapt a best-case and worst-case framework among Philadelphia’s diverse cancer patients, we We have a real opportunity to better coordinate the type of care they receive – their disease requires follow-up treatment,” Fayanju said. “Our hope is that this project will improve racial and ethnic disparities in shared decision-making and guideline-compliant care for older patients with emerging early-stage cancers.”
China’s history and widespread influence
The UPenn PRC was established in 2014 with a $4.35 million grant from the CDC and operated from 2014 to 2019. The center’s track record of success includes community-engaged research in weight management, cancer prevention and control, health disparities, and cognitive health.
In addition to the current center grant, UPenn PRC has been awarded a grant to become a Collaborating Center of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN). CPCRN is a national network of academic, public health, and community partners who collaborate in implementing evidence-based strategies to reduce the burden of cancer. UPenn Collaborating Center research project engages community and patients to facilitate risk assessment, counseling, and referral to risk stratification services for underserved adults at high risk for breast and colorectal cancer research approaches to
The UPenn PRC leadership team and collaborators are comprised of a wide range of disciplines and have extensive affiliations at the University of Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia, and across the nation. Mr. Glantz, Mr. Fayange, and Mr. Lanefall are all fellows at the Leonard Davis Health Economics Institute (LDI) and hold leadership roles in other university-wide interdisciplinary research programs.
“We hope to engage, encourage, and motivate scientists, clinicians, students, and community members from a variety of disciplines and perspectives to come together to build healthier communities. ” Glantz said. “We are fortunate to have many initiatives already underway at the University of Pennsylvania, and we aim to build even more productive academic, medical, and community partnerships that can be sustained over the long term.”
The UPenn PRC leadership team also includes Dr. Amy Reeder of Thomas Jefferson University, who serves as the site PI at SKCC. Collaborators from across Pennsylvania include Rebecca Brown, MD, MPH, Anne Marie McCarthy, MD, PhD, and Nicole Saul, MD, of the Perelman School of Medicine; Tamara J. Cadet, PhD, LICSW, MPH, School of Social Policy and Practice. Andy Tan, MBBS, PhD, MPH, MBA, Annenberg School for Communication; Collaborators include Dr. Olugbenga Oksanya of Thomas Jefferson University and Dr. Margaret “Gretchen” Schwartz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as members of Congress.
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization is comprised of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
Perelman School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top recipients of National Institutes of Health funding, with $550 million awarded in fiscal year 2022. With a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, the Penn Medicine team continues to advance modern technology, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T-cell therapy for cancer and mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. It has pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped medicine.
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