Abstract D038: MTPCCR lives on! After 20 successful years—a new phase for the cancer diversity training program

Abstract

Abstract Background Most US health-related diversity training programs focus on STEM fields. No standing national commitment to diversity training exists in the public health and social/behavioral sciences. This is particularly troubling in the age of precision medicine and the context of unrelenting cancer disparities. For the former to have an impact on the latter, communities with the greatest burden of cancer should be over-represented as participants in research and among patients benefiting from the many scientific advances. Yet the opposite is true. The scientific disciplines embedded in the real world of marginalized and underserved communities are the applied social sciences. Thus, begging the question: why is diversity in the lab more important than diversity in the community? MTPCCR Recognizing that to be relevant and effective, disparities research must be led by members of the communities affected by inequities, we secured an NCI training grant in 1998 to establish the Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research (MTPCCR). The purpose was to encourage master’s level students/professionals in public health and social/behavioral sciences to go on to the doctorate and careers as leaders in cancer disparities research. Four continuous grants and 20 years later, the MTPCCR has achieved the following: • 3 programs: o 1st site in Northern California (now UCSF) from 1998-2018 o 2nd site established at UCLA (2001-2018) o Seeded a separate program, Exito! for Latinxs (UT Health Science Center, San Antonio 2010-2020, PI Amelie Ramirez) • MTPCCR results: o 759 participants to date - Asian - 28% - African American - 28% - Latinx - 22% - White - 3% - Other/Multiple race/ethnicity - 9% - American Indian - 1.7% o 248 (33%) entered doctoral programs (80% attribute this to MTPCCR) o 144 graduated with doctorates; 92 are current doctoral students o MTPCCR alumni are post-doctoral fellows and on faculty around the country - Highest rank to date: Full Professor, UCSF o MTPCCR alumni are PIs on NIH grants - Many focus on cancer disparities Major components of our annual program included: 5-day summer institute; research internships; and doctoral application support awards. Alumni are tracked through a web-based survey. Next Steps Changes to the T funding mechanism now preclude renewal of our model. It is thus time for the institutions with the most to gain from this program and the resources to take up the cause. These include Comprehensive Cancer Centers (whose missions increasingly focus on serving their region and on curbing cancer disparities), and Schools of Public Health. At the vanguard is the UCLA Comprehensive Cancer Center, whose leadership has raised philanthropic funds to continue MTPCCR for the coming two years. With this demonstration of institutionalization, we now turn to development of strategies for organizational partnerships to continue the program with relatively small individual investments and the potential for important gains in both diversity and reducing cancer disparities. Citation Format: Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Rena J Pasick. MTPCCR lives on! After 20 successful years—a new phase for the cancer diversity training program [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2019 Sep 20-23; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(6 Suppl_2):Abstract nr D038.