Shaw, UNC collaborate to provide resources, mentoring to young prostate cancer researchers
| September 13, 2005 | |
| The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded Shaw University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine a three-year, $852,263 grant to create the Shaw-Carolina Center for Prostate Cancer Research.The center, to be based at Shaw University, will provide training, resources and mentorship and collaborative research opportunities to young prostate cancer researchers.
Collaborating institutions and organizations are UNC’s schools of medicine and public health, the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, the UNC-Louisiana State University Prostate Cancer Consortium and the Medical Review of North Carolina. The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Collaborative Partnership Award Program funded the new center through the Defense Department’s Prostate Cancer Research Program. “Prostate cancer is a critical health issue in the African-American community and especially here in North Carolina,” said Dr. Daniel L. Howard, professor of health policy and director of Shaw’s Institute for Health, Social and Community Research. “This grant will help us train and develop scientists who can address racial disparity in prostate cancer and, we hope, make an impact on this cancer that affects far too many African-American men. Already, two of our new junior faculty are undertaking data analysis on prostate cancer survival and patient care,” he added. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2005, 6,810 men statewide will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 890 men will die from the disease. The risk of prostate cancer among North Carolinians is almost twice as high for African Americans (217 per 100,000) than for whites (136 per 100,000), according to N.C. Cancer Facts and Figures 2004, a publication produced by the N.C. Central Cancer Registry. Statistics place the risk of dying from prostate cancer at more than 2.5 times greater for African Americans than for whites (77.9 versus 28.5 per 100,000). Howard is the center’s principal investigator. Dr. Paul Godley is the co-principal investigator. Godley is an associate professor of medicine in UNC’s School of Medicine and adjunct associate professor in the departments of epidemiology and biostatistics in UNC’s School of Public Health. Godley also is a UNC Lineberger faculty member. The center will provide research support for all aspects of grant preparation and administration, and data management, analysis and report writing. It also will establish mechanisms to develop and evaluate new study proposals for prostate cancer research focused on African-American men. Additionally, the center will conduct workshops for N.C. minority and research communities and service providers to promote and disseminate findings, and will institute a structured program of training and skill building. The new center is a remarkable opportunity for UNC to collaborate with Shaw University on a health issue disproportionately affecting both African-American men and North Carolinians, said Godley, who also directs the UNC Program on Ethnicity, Culture and Health Outcomes. “We look forward to continuing our work with Shaw University and other Historically Black Colleges and Universities in North Carolina Minority Serving Institutions on critical health disparity issues,” he added. # # # Note: Contact Howard at (919) 546-8256 and Godley at (919) 966-4431. Shaw University contact: LaChauna Mason, (919) 546-8269 or lsumpter@shawu.edu UNC Lineberger contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-5905 or dgs@med.unc.edu For further information please contact Ramona DuBose, director of communications for the UNC School of Public Health, by telephone at 919-966-7467 or by e-mail at ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
