Penn State awarded $1.3 million for Northern Appalachian Cancer Network

Press Release - June 9, 2005

Hershey, Pa. -- Penn State was awarded a five-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for ongoing support of its work to reduce cancer-related health disparities in medically-underserved rural communities of Pennsylvania and southern New York. The efforts are organized through the Northern Appalachian Cancer Network, a partnership of Penn State faculty, physicians, staff and community members to improve cancer outcomes through the development and testing of community interventions and the collection of data about their effectiveness.

"An additional five years of funding will allow us to continue to develop more effective methods that bring much needed education and medical programs to rural areas where cancer screenings are often unavailable, people are less likely to regularly visit physicians and cancer mortality rates are higher," said Gene Lengerich, director of community outreach and education, Penn State Cancer Institute, and associate professor of health evaluation sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. "These efforts save lives and we are grateful that we'll be able to continue to help people who otherwise may not have access to medical care."

Lengerich also is research director for the Appalachia Community Cancer Network (ACCN), the parent organization of the NACN. The ACCN directs cancer research and research-based interventions toward rural areas and medically underserved people in rural areas of Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and Virginia. ACCN is led by the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center's Prevention Research Center through a partnership with Penn State, West Virginia University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and The Ohio State University. At Penn State both the College of Medicine in Hershey and the College of Agricultural Sciences at University Park are actively involved.

"Our studies have clearly shown that residents of Appalachia suffer from excess cancer occurrence, especially from cancer of the lung, colon, rectum and cervix. Residents also are more likely to die from the disease," Lengerich said. "We believe the excess burden is linked to limited access to health information and health-care services, social and economic factors, as well as risky lifestyles."

Tailoring this knowledge to the interests and resources of their local areas, community coalitions and partners have addressed a wide-range of issues with grassroots efforts.

"Community coalitions individualize their efforts to the needs of their communities," said J. Lynne Brown, co-investigator of the NACN and associate professor of food sciences, Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences. "Then, using tested strategies, coalitions may educate and recruit individuals to breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings, which find cancer early when it is more effectively treated. Other coalitions have focused on risk reduction by teaching and demonstrating cooking skills to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables."

In the past five years, community coalitions completed 724 community-based interventions, 98 of which were in partnership with health-care providers and resulted in 6,845 rural, low-income individuals being screened for breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal cancers.

The NACN also recently completed a community-based pilot study with the coalitions. The study found cancer education materials were more likely to be distributed in counties with cancer coalitions than in counties that were approached by only staff of Penn State. The study successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of community-academic partnership in cancer prevention and control.

"The NACN's efforts will complement those of Penn State Cancer Institute, which is also dedicated to enhancing cancer outreach and community research throughout central Pennsylvania," Lengerich said. "We hope to amass information and resources to reduce the devastating effects of cancer in our rural communities."

Contact: Amy Buehler Stranges (717) 531-7272 abuehlerstranges@psu.edu