NCI Awarded $4.8M grant to UTHealth Houston

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently awarded UTHealth Houston $4.8 million to implement grant funding in partnership with eight Texas primary care community health centers on the best way to treat underinsured and uninsured patients living with cancer.

The project "Community and Academic Synergy for Cancer Survivorship Care Delivery Enhancement" (CASCADE) will focus on how to best enable primary healthcare teams to provide whole person and coordinated care to underserved patients who have a history of cancer.

This study is also a partnership between the University of Texas System Institutions that includes the UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Bijal Balasubramanian Ph.D, Professor of Epidemiology at UT Health reports, "70% of cancer survivors have other chronic conditions and receive care from multiple clinical teams, which can create gaps in the coordination of care. Also reported is the fact that community health centers are the primary care homes for patients who are underinsured or uninsured."

Cancer survivors are also at higher risk for developing other cancers and chronic conditions. This coupled with the growing number of cancer survivors and the anticipated shortage of oncology subspecialists.

The plan is to help community health center clinics across Texas improve identification and tracking of cancer survivors by modifying existing clinic workflows and coordinate and provide survivor care through a designated care coordinator.

The plan is to also use "Project ECHO, a telementoring strategy, to enhance primary care clinicians' knowledge concerning cancer survivorship care, how to best manage of the effects of cancer and treatments, plus help to develop communication between oncologists and primary care teams.

Researchers expect the intervention to increase rates for guideline-recommended screenings for secondary cancers, increase primary care clinicians' knowledge of cancer survivorship care, and patient reported experience of care coordination. Researchers are also going to measure adherence to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network surveillance guidelines for survivors with the most prevalent cancer types.