PROJECT SUMMARY
Older adults with cancer (OACs) comprise a large and growing proportion of cancer patients and survivors.
Many OACs have unmet behavioral health needs with significant negative implications for their quality of life,
physical health, and adherence to and recovery from cancer care. Efficacious interventions to address these
needs have been developed but their implementation into cancer care is limited. Dissemination and
implementation (D&I) research can address this gap by creating implementable interventions and identifying
strategies for integrating these interventions into routine cancer care. Available D&I research infrastructure is
limited by a lack of tailoring to population and project-specific needs, a focus on trainees and early career
faculty, and insufficient resources to meet current demand. The proposed project addresses these limitations
by developing new interdisciplinary research infrastructure, the Center for Implementation Research in Cancer
in Later Life (CIRCL) that will infuse D&I research methods into new and existing projects across all stages of
behavioral intervention development for OACs. CIRCL will consist of Administrative, Training, and Research
Cores. The Administrative Core will provide expert leadership, support, and oversight to ensure that the
mission and aims of CIRCL are accomplished. The Core will consist of an Executive Committee,
administrative Support Team, external Advisory Council, and OAC and Caregiver Council. The Training Core
will provide resources and networking opportunities to train investigators to integrate D&I science methods into
their research including a webinar series, work-in-progress webinar, mentorship program, and resource library.
The purpose of the Research Core is to evaluate the research needs of investigators and provide resources to
facilitate research on the D&I of behavioral interventions for OACs. The Core will administer a national
research needs assessment to inform the structure and content of CIRCL resources and will support a pilot
awards program and annual research conference. The overall project objectives will be met across two
phases. During the R21 phase (years 1-2), core components of CIRCL will be developed including hiring
administrative staff, launching the CIRCL website, establishing the Advisory and OAC and Caregiver Councils,
administering the research needs assessment, and developing standard operating procedures for all CIRCL
activities. During the R33 phase (years 3-5), we will utilize this established infrastructure to train researchers
and support D&I research projects. The resources available through CIRCL will be advertised nationally with
targeted outreach to investigators in underrepresented groups to increase diversity in the research workforce.
Benchmark evaluation during the R21 phase will ensure CIRCL resources are developed in a timely manner in
preparation for the R33 phase. Evaluation of the R33 phase will assess utilization of CIRCL resources and the
impact of those resources on the advancement of D&I research on behavioral interventions for OACs.
