Cancer Research Teams receive Travel Awards from CTxCARES

The CTxCARES Center (Communities of Texas: Cancer, Activity, Research, Education, Support) a component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health recently announced the granting of seven travel awards to research teams focused on accelerating the implementation and dissemination of cancer prevention and control research.

Travel awards are monetary awards to assist in the dissemination of research, travel for conferences and encourage related training in their areas of research. The competitive awards are intended to stimulate publishable manuscripts in cancer prevention and control.

“These awards are especially important for enabling junior investigators to present their findings and network with other colleagues interested in promoting cancer prevention and control,” said Richard Wood, M.H.A., the project director of CTxCARES. “The awardees will present their research findings this summer at professional conferences throughout Texas and across the nation.”

Topics to be explored include health disparities (geographic access to cancer treatment); assessment and intervention research (new technological approaches to patient reported outcome assessment; the impact of generic chronic disease self-management programs on cancer survivors; and the adaption of evidence-based self-management programs for cancer survivors); workforce development (cost-effectiveness of improving residency training programs for colorectal cancer screening); and policy issues (students perceptions regarding HPV vaccination mandates).

Recipients from the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health are Deborah Vollmer Dahlke, Yan Hong, Ph.D., and Nick Edwardson, M.S. Others receiving awards include Matthew Lee Smith, Ph.D. (University of Georgia); Kelly Wilson, Ph.D. (Texas A&M University); Andrea Dwyer, M.P.H. and Betsy Risendal (University of Colorado); and Alicia Salvatore, Dr.P.H. (University of California-Berkeley) shared with SangNam Ahn, Ph.D. (University of Memphis).

Marcia Ory, Ph.D., Regents and Distinguished Professor at TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health and principal investigator of CTxCARES notes that she is especially pleased to see a variety of research topics that touch on many important topics that will contribute to Texas A&M’s visibility in this area. “These research papers will contribute to the acceleration of  best practices for cancer prevention and control across Texas.”

CTxCARES is one of 10 designated centers within the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network and is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the Prevention Research Centers Program and related networks. CTxCARES is a collaborative cancer research partnership comprised of investigators at the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, and Scott & White Healthcare.