Abstract C09: Building capacity to conduct cancer disparities research: Progress and evaluation of NCI CRCHD P20 GUIDE Project

The NCI CRCHD P20 partnerships aim to support collaborations between investigators at institutions serving underserved health disparity populations and under-represented students (ISUPS) and cancer centers with integrated cancer research programs. The P20 GUIDE (GSU-UICC-Disparities-Education) Training and Research Program is entering its third year of collaboration between the UI Cancer Center (UICC) and GSU. Early outcomes provide key insight into best practices to advance partnerships and training to support cancer disparities research. Aims: 1) Describe early outcomes of the NCI P20 collaboration between a cancer center and teaching institution. 2) Discuss midway program evaluation of training and education core of P20 collaboration to guide current/future collaborations to support workforce development, training, and education. 3) Examine data from undergraduate students and ESIs from ISUPS to evaluate progress and early lessons learned from a P20 collaboration aimed to increase the capacity of the ISUPS to conduct cancer disparities research. The P20 GUIDE Program enhances the capacity of GSU to conduct cancer disparities research through mentoring, education, training, and a pilot research project. The training, education, and mentoring program pairs 6 GSU ESIs with mentors from the UICC and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) NCI R25 Program. The training and education core exposes undergraduates from GSU to cancer disparities research through mentoring and a summer research immersion. The capacity of the ESIs from GSU to conduct cancer disparities research is enhanced through one-on-one mentoring; writing boot-camps to support peer-review manuscript development; health disparities coursework, which in turn supports grant development, research proposal development, and collaboration on a cancer disparities pilot research project. During the summer of Yr II, undergraduates from GSU participated in a 10-week summer research immersion that will be supported through ongoing mentoring and collaboration. Progress and outcomes from Yr I and II specific to the Training and Education Core of the partnership collaboration were assessed to determine the feasibility of the collaboration in achieving the aims of the P20 collaboration and to identify lessons learned midway through the collaboration to allow iterative program assessment and adjustment to support goals of the NCI CRCHD P20 partnerships. Lessons learned from the Training and Education Core demonstrate that the partnership-building collaboration is enhancing the capacity of ESIs from GSU to conduct cancer disparities research and support the development and advancement of other P20 or partnership development proposals. To date, 2 of the 6 ESIs from GSU have received tenure and were promoted to Associate Professors. Two of the GSU ESIs have collaborated on a peer-reviewed manuscript and national conference presentations with mentors from the UIC R25 Program and UICC. GSU also received a diversity supplement to support enhanced research collaboration between a GSU ESI and the pilot research team. Four of the 6 GSU ESIs are actively taking coursework at UIC in the health disparities certificate program. Three of the GSU ESIs are actively working on grant proposals that will be submitted by the end of Yr III, and two of the ESIs have submitted grant proposals pending review. The summer of Year II will also yield pre/post program data demonstrating effectiveness of the GUIDE Summer fellows program in increasing the interest/knowledge of careers in cancer disparity research among undergraduate students at GSU. Year II data will demonstrate mixed-method data on interest, progress, and needs among the GSU ESIs in developing a cancer disparities research portfolio. Key early lessons learned are the need for additional funding, course buy-out, and collaborative teaching opportunities to allow the ESIs from the ISUPS to further engage in cancer disparities research. Citation Format: Karriem S. Watson, Alicia K. Matthews, Kent Hoskins, Rupert Evans, Ifeanyi Beverly Chukwudozie, Stacey Rhodes, Erica Martinez, Marian L. Fitzgibbon, Catherine Balthazar, Robert A. Winn. Building capacity to conduct cancer disparities research: Progress and evaluation of NCI CRCHD P20 GUIDE Project [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr C09.