Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation Awards GRU Cancer Center Three-Year, $1.74M Grant to Address Lung Cancer Among Neediest Commu...
February 23 2015 - 10:30AM
Business Wire
c-CARE lung cancer module seeks to improve
cancer awareness, education, detection and access to care;
interventions will be tested for potential expansion
statewide
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced a
three-year, $1.74 million grant to the GRU Cancer Center for a
pilot program to reduce the burden of lung cancer among underserved
populations in Georgia’s Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) by
focusing on prevention, early detection, education and helping
people with suspected or diagnosed lung cancer access and navigate
cancer care and community-based supportive services in the region.
The project’s interventions will be tested for potential use
statewide.
The grant, which was made through the Foundation’s Bridging
Cancer Care™ initiative, will help the GRU Cancer Center launch the
lung cancer module of its cancer-Community Awareness Access
Research and Education initiative, or c-CARE, which seeks to more
broadly address all cancers that are preventable or may be detected
early enough to improve outcomes.
The GRU Cancer Center introduced the c-CARE initiative today
during an event in Augusta, Georgia, that featured Samir N. Khleif,
M.D., director of the GRU Cancer Center; John Damonti, president of
the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation; Mayor Hardie Davis Jr.; and
representatives from the public health community and faith-based
institutions in the region.
Lung cancer is lethal. As the second-leading cause of death
among U.S. adults behind heart disease, lung cancer kills more
Americans each year than breast, prostate and colon cancers
combined. One in two patients diagnosed with lung cancer will die
within a year. After five years, only 16 in 100 patients will be
alive. The later the diagnosis, the worse the prognosis.
“We know that early detection and treatment of lung cancer can
lead to dramatically different outcomes,” said Damonti. “Patients
diagnosed at Stage 1 have a 57 percent chance of achieving
five-year survival. That drops to 4 percent when patients have a
late-stage diagnosis. So, early detection and diagnosis combined
with education, new treatments and patient support are keys to
increased survival.”
The Foundation’s Bridging Cancer Care™ initiative is focusing on
five or six southeastern U.S. states with the highest incidence and
mortality from lung cancer. The target states also have a number of
disparity populations – poor, rural and minority – who are
disproportionately affected by lung cancer.
“We are exceptionally proud that the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation recognizes the value of our c-CARE initiative and has
agreed to partner with us to make our vision a reality,” said Dr.
Samir N. Khleif, Director of the GRU Cancer Center. “We are
confident that together we are developing a new model for cancer
awareness, access, education, and care capable of addressing issues
of disparity, not only in our own community but in communities
everywhere.”
In Georgia, higher rates of smoking and other forms of tobacco
use, plus secondhand smoke and industrial exposures, have
translated into higher rates of lung cancer. Georgians are
diagnosed with lung cancer 9% more often than all Americans and die
of lung cancer 7% more often. More than 4,600 Georgians will die
from lung cancer this year alone, the American Cancer Society
estimates.
In CSRA counties, 500 new lung cancer cases are diagnosed each
year and about 380 people die due to the disease, according to
National Cancer Institute State Cancer Profile data. In Richmond
County, for example, residents are diagnosed with lung cancer 13%
more often than among all Georgians and 24% more than among all
Americans. The lung cancer death rate in Richmond County exceeds
the state by 18% and the nation by 26%.
The long-term goal of c-CARE is to improve cancer outcomes
within minority and underserved communities through disease
awareness and education; improved cancer prevention and early
detection behaviors; navigation to care; and referral to
community-based supportive resources. The initial target population
for the lung cancer module is adult African American smokers and
former smokers whose historical level of smoking combined with
other potential lung cancer risk factors makes them eligible for
low-dose CT screening (LDCT), a newly recommended tool for early
detection of lung cancer. The project will make its educational
interventions broadly available to anyone 21-80 years of age,
irrespective of their race, ethnicity or tobacco use history,
however.
c-CARE will collaborate with African American churches and
community health clinics to reach people in need. People with
experience as health care practitioners, nurses, pharmacists or
trained paraprofessionals will be recruited as Community Health
Workers (CHWs). The CHWs will help educate their respective
communities about lung cancer prevention, guidelines for early
detection and new treatment options. They also will help c-CARE
participants secure tobacco cessation and lung cancer screening
services. When lung cancer is suspected or diagnosed, GRU Cancer
Center patient navigators will help participants access appropriate
care in the community, including clinical trials.
About the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation
The mission of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation is to help
reduce health disparities by strengthening community-based health
care worker capacity, integrating medical care and community-based
supportive services, and mobilizing communities in the fight
against disease. For more information about the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Foundation, please visit www.bms.com/foundation or follow us
on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bmsnews.
For The Bristol-Myers Squibb FoundationFrederick J. Egenolf,
609-252-4875frederick.egenolf@bms.com
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