AFRICAN-CARIBBEAN CANCER CONSORTIUM SCIENTIFIC AND TRAINING CONFERENCE -
DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The African-Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) was conceived in 2006 for the study of viral, genetic and environmental risk factors in populations of African descent. The establishment of this Consortium has provided new collaborative opportunities for cancer research among investigators throughout the various islands in the Caribbean, United States and Africa. Since the establishment of the AC3, 71 investigators have joined and are conducting collaborative studies of cancer risk in the US, Caribbean islands and Africa. Cervical and prostate cancer studies are ongoing in Brooklyn, USA, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana as well as Nigeria. Head and neck cancer studies are ongoing in the US (Pittsburgh and Brooklyn). Breast cancer studies are ongoing in Brooklyn, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Guyana. The studied populations include African-Americans, African-Caribbean, African as well as immigrant African-descent populations living in the United States. We seek funding to support our next conference entitled: "Continuing to Build Capacity to Address Health Disparities in Populations of African Ancestry: a Focus on Women's Cancers." The purpose of this conference is to provide the forum/infrastructure through which AC3 participating investigators and non-members will be able to 1) present cancer research data and progress reports of newly funded studies or evaluate new research ideas for studies that focus on gene- environment interactions and cancer disparities in populations of African descent; 2) describe the health resources, screening and other preventive activities present or absent that may attribute to higher cancer incidence and mortality in their study populations; 3) to formally discuss the coordination of current and future research collaborations; 4) provide a forum for training junior investigators and students who are interested in pursuing careers in health disparities research 5) raise the awareness throughout the local Philadelphia community about the importance of minority participation research and clinical trials; and 6) to seek funding from the NIMHD and NCI to support case-control studies of cancer risk across these at-risk populations. This upcoming meeting will focus our attention to address a significant need for studies related to cancer in women of African descent and will promote studies that will fill in the gaps in the existing knowledge about cancer risk and outcomes related to women's cancers in African-descent populations. The conference will also provide a forum for training and career development that will lead to an increase in diversity among young cancer research investigators. The uniqueness of this conference is that it serves not only as a forum for training, research presentation and interaction, but also promotes the development and coordination of research studies that involve African-American, African-Caribbean and African populations as a whole.
