# Outreach Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · PONCE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2021 · $143,583

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Hispanics/Latinos (H/L) are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at later stages than non-Hispanics,
due to barriers associated with knowledge, access to care, and language. Further, the American Cancer
Society estimates more than half of all cancer deaths could be prevented by making healthy behavior choices
(completing appropriate cancer screening tests, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, engaging
in regular physical activity, using sun protection, limiting alcohol consumption, and abstaining from tobacco).
However, there is a lack of Spanish-language cancer education and prevention resources that have been
culturally and contextually created for this audience. Additionally, H/L populations often tend to be viewed as
one aggregate demographic group, when, in fact, there are sub-ethnicities within this population that have
unique cultural and psychographic characteristics. Attending to these specific characteristics in the design and
promotion of cancer prevention education may improve H/L health and represents a form of preference-based
precision medicine/communication.
 Results from our team’s previous work and the work of others indicate effective communication, leading
to increased knowledge and behavior change can occur in multiple forms. Recent studies report community-
focused, preference-based, culturally adapted programs have been successful in increasing cancer-screening
behaviors in H/L. We propose to build on our foundation of community-focused educational activities
established during the previous funding periods and expand our goals to: reach rural areas in Puerto Rico (PR)
and areas heavily populated by PRs in Florida (FL) through tailored education and the conduct of our ¡Salud!
serie de charlas in PR (a series of interactive community meetings, previously held only in FL), and conduct
the community/researcher forum El Puente (The Bridge) in FL (previously held only in PR), and expand our
use of social media and new technologies for measuring impacts of our efforts. In addition, we propose using
the culturally-adapted Spanish version of “Cancer 101: A Cancer Education and Training Program for
Hispanics/Latinos - Version 2” (Cancer 101) as a “train-the-trainer” curriculum to address the identified cancer-
related educational needs of H/L. This adapted curriculum serves two goals: 1) it delivers culturally-tailored
cancer information to H/L community members and 2) it trains a new cadre of public health students to assist
the Outreach Core (OC) in disseminating cancer information. Our activities are designed to increase
awareness of cancer prevention, early detection, treatment programs, and cancer research for H/L in FL, and
PR. Our efforts are bolstered by the Community Health Educator (CHE) and our Community Advisory Panels
(CAPs) to strengthen and sustain community partnerships/collaborative activities with key academic,
community, and regional partners at both sites, and to assis...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10249955
- **Project number:** 5U54CA163071-10
- **Recipient organization:** PONCE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Julio Cesar Jimenez Chavez
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $143,583
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-25 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10249955

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10249955, Outreach Core (5U54CA163071-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10249955. Licensed CC0.

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