# Community Outreach and Engagement

> **NIH NIH P30** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $387,957

## Abstract

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT: PROJECT SUMMARY
The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) Community Outreach and Engagement (COE)
mission is to reduce cancer burden and cancer health disparities in the HICCC Catchment Area (CA). This is
accomplished through outreach, promoting and facilitating research, and engaging community partners in
developing and delivering education, access to services, research, and policy initiatives relevant to the CA. The
CA is remarkably diverse, with higher representation than the US as a whole from individuals who are (1)
Hispanic ethnicity and/or non-white; (2) foreign-born; and (3) living below the poverty line (defined as <$12,140
for an individual and <$25,100 for a four person household). The greatest cancer disparities include the higher
incidence rates of prostate and liver cancer in most of the CA, and the higher rates of prostate, liver, and breast
cancer mortality in the Bronx and Central Harlem. In the Washington Heights/Inwood (WH/I) community where
HICCC is located, the population is 81.4% Hispanic and/or non-white, 46.3% foreign born, and 19.5% living
below the poverty line; screening rates are 87%, 87.9% and 72.1% for mammography, cervical cancer and
colorectal cancer, respectively. These cancer screening rates are all above the US average. HPV vaccination
rates in WH/I are considerably higher than in the US as a whole (72.0% in WH/I versus 48.6% in the US). Higher
screening and vaccination rates in WH/I, a multi-lingual community with a wide range of health literacy, evidences
the successful synergy between research, outreach, education and engagement. With support from the COE
Community Advisory Board (CAB) we focus on areas of greatest relevance to the communities we serve. COE
research and education efforts emphasize individual and community level cancer risk factors and neighborhood
level environmental carcinogens. The COE has four integrated and synergistic aims: (1) Monitor the cancer
burden of the HICCC CA by examining cancer primary prevention, cancer screening, and treatment, including
access to clinical trials, and long-term outcomes after diagnosis; (2) Outreach to ensure the availability and
enhance the accessibility of evidence-based preventive and treatment services throughout the CA; (3) promote
and facilitate relevant and impactful Research in the CA; and (4) Engage communities in the CA to support,
implement, and disseminate community educational, research and policy initiatives. During the last five years,
COE efforts supported the overall HICCC mission by leading community workshops on cancer prevention and
screening, connecting over 20,000 individuals to cancer screening services, enrolling over 8,200 individuals in
the CA into 31 separate studies, and facilitating participation of minority enrollment into clinical trials. COE
continues to monitor the cancer care needs and progress within the HICCC CA to guide program development
and delivery, and to provide eviden...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10880410
- **Project number:** 5P30CA013696-49
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** MARY BETH TERRY
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $387,957
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1997-07-04 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10880410

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10880410, Community Outreach and Engagement (5P30CA013696-49). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10880410. Licensed CC0.

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