Abstract A17: Outreach efforts to reduce cancer disparities via a partnership between the Ponce Health Sciences University and the Moffitt Cancer Center

Introduction: The disproportionate burden of cancer among U.S. Hispanics is well documented. The Ponce School of Medicine and Moffitt Cancer Center Partnership, is a collaborative academic institutional partnership between a minority-serving institution and an NCI-designated cancer center focused on reducing cancer health disparities among Hispanics in Tampa, Florida and Ponce, Puerto Rico. Within the Partnership's structure, the Outreach Core combines community-based participatory research and social marketing approaches to deliver planned, community-focused, educational activities designed to increase awareness of cancer prevention, early detection, treatment programs, and cancer research for Hispanics in Tampa, FL, and Ponce, PR. This abstract describes the community engagement strategies used to improve recognition and trust in minority and underserved communities.

Methods: The strategies for impacting health disparities and achieving the goals of the Outreach Core included forming a community advisory panel, building relationships with existing community-academic partnerships, engaging new partners, appearances at health-oriented events, presentations to local community leaders, community forums and “branding” our educational events. These activities take place in Tampa, FL and Ponce, PR.

Results: During the past four years we have made significant progress toward achieving our goals by: 1) establishing quarterly meetings with a community advisory panel at each site; 2) maintaining 32 community partners; 3) successful “branding” of our educational events (e.g. ¡Salud! Serie de charlas, Latinos y el cancer, Hablemos de cáncer); 4) conducting cancer education events in Tampa n=9 and PR n=8; 6) increasing access to cancer screening opportunities by providing free health screenings at events and linkages to community resources; 5) recruited over 300 participants for biobanking studies.

Conclusion: Community outreach and engagement strategies, in particular “branding” and building trust within the community, may be used effectively for participant recruitment and for delivery of important population-focused messages. This collaborative approach has worked well as we continue to experience an increase in attendance at our events. The two Hispanic communities value language-appropriate and culturally relevant cancer education, and their participation and feedback guides the organization of future events and creates trust for participation in future research studies.

Citation Format: Jessica McIntyre, Cynthia Cortes, Jomar Lopez, Eida Castro, Clement Gwede, Susan Vadaparampil, Vani Simmons, Thomas Brandon, Julio Jimenez, Gwendolyn Quinn. Outreach efforts to reduce cancer disparities via a partnership between the Ponce Health Sciences University and the Moffitt Cancer Center. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr A17.