DETROIT—Nationwide, African Americans have the highest death rate of all racial or ethnic groups, according to the American Cancer Society. In an effort to find answers to this alarming problem, Wayne State University, in a cross-campus collaboration with the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, the Institute of Gerontology and the Center for Urban and African American Health, has received notice of additional funding for a research program that aims to address minority cancer disparities.

This Community Network Program funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health is building a comprehensive community-based program to reduce disparities of breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancer that adversely affect older, underserved, African American adults in metropolitan Detroit. The recent award of $199,883 brings the project funding total to more than $3 million since the program was initially funded in 2005.

            The program, led by Terrance Albrecht, Ph.D., professor of family medicine and public health sciences at WSU’s School of Medicine, interim associate center director of population sciences and interim program leader of population studies and prevention at KCI, is a catalyst for a community based movement to improve access to and engagement of interventions for cancer screening and early stage cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment. With the ultimate goal of eradicating cancer health disparities, Albrecht is leading community leaders, researchers and medical professionals to  maintain education, research and training programs that reduce disparities, promote early detection, aid in treatment seeking and sustain interventions and research.

            “This important collaboration represents the commitment of Wayne State University to focus on major issues in urban health,” said Gloria Heppner, Ph.D., associate vice president for research at WSU. “Dr. Albrecht and her associates are on the forefront of efforts to ensure that all Americans are able to receive the latest and best information on cancer, ways to prevent it, and ways to treat it.”