Rio Grande Valley Cancer Health Disparity Research Center - The Rio Grande Valley (RGV), located in South Texas along the US-Mexico border, is home to Hispanic/Latino American (HA/LA) populations who disproportionately suffer from several cancers despite improvements in the last several years in overall health care (diagnosis and treatment). The proposed Rio Grande Valley Cancer Health Disparity Research Center (RGV-CHDRC), located at the university of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), will develop a comprehensive, biomedical research infrastructure building capacity to reduce cancer chronic disease disparities in the RGV region using multi-domain and multifactorial (basic, clinical, behavioral, social, biological) cutting-edge research, engaging relevant community partners/stake holders, and developing local health disparity research workforce. This center will establish collaborations with local and national educational, research, and medical institutions as well as nationally renowned research-intensive institutions, such as University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas Southwestern, and Baylor College of Medicine. We propose three research projects: 1) a basic biomedical research project on etiology of liver cancer, 2) a social/behavioral research project on prolonged psychosocial stress cancer and 3) a clinical and health service research project on cervical cancer and HPV screening, along with four cores - Administrative Core, Investigator Development Core, Community Engagement Core, and Research Capacity Core. The proposed research projects will delineate molecular and socio-behavioral determinants of health, influences of cancer and its associated chronic diseases health disparity, clinical manifestation of early cancer diagnosis, and if socio-behavioral interventions that can reduce burden of these chronic diseases and improve quality of life of the cancer patients. These projects will conduct basic and clinical translational research to improve early diagnosis of liver and cervical cancers and develop strategies to enhance therapeutic outcomes of chemotherapies by applying culturally tailored interventions. This U54 application will foster and promote collaboration between research projects and core facilities, engage community partners, and facilitate translation of science into practice. The main objectives of our RCMI application are to: 1) Enhance biomedical research infrastructure and capacity building at UTRGV and in the RGV; 2) Conduct impactful research on variable factors associated with cancer disparities; 3) Develop relationships and establish collaborations among local and top tier research institutions, 4) Offer advance level training and mentoring opportunities for minority students and faculty members across the region; 5) Disseminate scientific knowledge from the project to the local community partners, researchers and stake holders. These activities will be crucial for developing successful intervention strategies to eliminate cancer and chronic diseases and health disparities in RGV populations. This funding will allow NIMHD to have its footprint in the RGV and provide NIMHD access to the unique Hispanic population data.
