Abstract PO-057: Cancer center support for understanding statewide COVID-19 prevalence and early detection

Abstract

Abstract NCI-funded cancer centers are committed to serving the needs of their catchment area—at no other time have these needs been greater or more explicit. To this end many cancer institutes are redirecting the efforts of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) programs to address COVID-19 related needs. The Knight Cancer Institute, recognizing the substantial resources they bring in community engagement and population science, has taken a lead role in establishing a statewide study of the prevalence of COVID-19 related symptoms and active disease. The Knight team has developed and implemented a syndromic and active surveillance system that allows monitoring of COVID-19 related symptoms as early indicators of COVID-19 accompanied by symptomatic and asymptomatic testing. The Key to Oregon study, started with state funding, will create a cohort of up to 100,000 individuals. Participants are identified with household statewide random sampling with stratification and oversampling for geography (rural/urban) and race/ethnicity. A secure, HIPAA-compliant web-based data entry portal was developed and individuals are consented to provide daily information of symptoms related to COVID-19 and a series of additional surveys addressing issues such as financial impact, mental health impact, and physical impacts (including cancer screening behaviors) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals meeting symptom thresholds consistent with potential coronavirus infections are offered a mailed, home-based COVID-19 testing kit. Additionally, asymptomatic testing of randomly selected individuals will be conducted at regular intervals. In the first 2 weeks of recruitment, nearly 10,000 individuals have enrolled. Weekly review of data assesses for recruitment bias and provides focus for community engagement efforts. The Knight COE team leverages their existing relationships and infrastructure to support engagement in communities of color, Native American, Latin X, and rural groups. Listening sessions have been held and Knight will direct resources to support community organizations committed to assisting with outreach for the Key to Oregon study. The value of this study as a mechanism for informing public health policy and health care resource distribution is immense. Further, the impact, while not immediate, on cancer research and cancer care is substantial, from building community-level trust that will long outlast the pandemic, to providing early indicators of infection hot spots that allow susceptible individuals to make potentially life-saving decisions, to establishing a statewide cohort of individuals who may be re-approached for future cancer-related studies. The ability of an NCI-designated cancer center to rapidly and effectively redirect and repurpose resources has allowed for the development of this innovative statewide resource. Citation Format: Jackilen Shannon, David Bangsberg, Paul Spellman, Bridget Barnes, Jenny Lee Berry, Kim Brown, Derick DuVivier, Kathryn Goforth, Peter Graven, Christopher Peters, Kathryn Schuff, Brian Druker. Cancer center support for understanding statewide COVID-19 prevalence and early detection [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Meeting: COVID-19 and Cancer; 2020 Jul 20-22. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(18_Suppl):Abstract nr PO-057.