Program Profile for Full Members

Full Membership:
36 members
23 departments
   7 schools

Project Funding as of 10/2009 (direct costs):

Peer-reviewed	$ 7.9M	37
NCI	$3.8M	16
NIH	$3.4M	15
ACS	$0.1M	2
NSF	$0M	0
Other	$.6M	4
Non peer-reviewed	$5.9M	23
Total	$13.8M	60

Scientific Goals

The Program goals mirror that of the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences aiming to reduce the risk, incidence, and deaths from cancer as well as enhancing the quality of life for those living with a cancer diagnosis (cancer survivors) both in Wisconsin and beyond.

Population Health

• To create, integrate, disseminate and apply knowledge promoting the most efficient and effective possible use of resources to improve U.S. cancer health. This research focuses on the health of the population, both those at risk of cancer and those with cancer.

Tobacco

• To expand the understanding of tobacco dependence and its treatment and to use this knowledge to design and implement interventions that will significantly reduce tobacco use in Wisconsin, in the nation and beyond. Future goals include working to increase quit rates to 50% and the development of treatments that can be better matched to individual differences.

Cancer Communications

• To improve the quality of life for patients and families facing cancer across the disease spectrum through communication technology – with special emphasis on underserved populations.

Aging in Cancer Control

• To enhance the translation of aging and geriatrics research to clinical cancer care and identify opportunities to improve cancer care and test interventions relevant to older patients.
  

Palliative Care & Supportive Oncology

• To improve both the science of comfort and the art of caring through research, education and clinical practice in palliative care, provided in the broad context from the time of a cancer diagnosis.

• Implementation of the AHRQ smoking cessation guideline intervention results in improved quit rates. (JNCI 96:594-603, 2004)
• Demonstration that speciific haplotypes of the PTC gene are associated with reduced likelihood of smoking. (Nicotine and Tobacco Research 7:853-858, 2005)
• Development of CHESS, an interactive clinical computer systems to address the needs of cancer caregivers. (BMJ 328:1150, 2004)
• Development of clear evidence that effective smoking cessation pharmacotherapies work by reducing tobacco withdrawal symptoms as well as stronger emotional reactions to environmental events in withdrawing smokers. (Ann Rev Psychol 55:463-91, 2004, and Psychol Rev 111:33-51, 2004)
• Collection of buccal DNA specimens to identify genomic loci that are associated with cancer risk (both invasive and in-situ breast cancer), confirming a previously identified genetic marker for mammary cancer risk in rats. (Breast Cancer Res 7:R357-64, 2005)
• Demonstration through simulation modeling that the Wisconsin breast cancer population most closely modeled the combined US data for the trends in breast cancer epidemiology including age- and stagespecific incidence and mortality. (NEJM 353:1784-1792, 2005)
• Definition of a national agenda for social work research in palliative care and end-of-life care. (J Palliative Med 8:418-431, 2005)
• Use of the Pain & Policy Studies Group's (PPSG) research methodologies in the USA to improve the state regulatory environment for cancer control and pain relief, and to provide an evidence-based understanding of the relationship between the medical use, abuse, and diversion of pain medications. (Health Policy 74:192-204, 2005)
• International application of PPSG's research to guide the Institute of Medicine and World Health Organization cancer control policies and global strategy and use in collaboration with experts and governments to improve national policies governing cancer pain management in Italy, India and Romania. (Lancet. 358:139-143, 2001, and Mosoiu et al., Lancet April 2006)
• Discovery of a "global regulator" gene that controls how pathogenic fungi sense their environment, adapt to human hosts, and cause sickness in cancer patients (report in preparation).
• Completion of two pilot feasibility studies of psychoeducational interventions to improve quality of life in older breast cancer survivors leading to a randomized clinical trial to test the efficacy of the intervention. (Res Nurs Health 25:246-55, 2002).