PROJECT SUMMARY: CANCER OUTREACH CORE The Cancer Outreach Core (COC) will apply a community-engaged research (CEnR) framework to facilitate and nurture integration and partnership between the institutions in our Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center/Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership (MVTCP). The COC will engage with our community partners to incorporate meaningful community engagement into research and outreach to ensure that MVTCP activities are reflecting the needs and concerns of those populations that are most affected by cancer health disparities in the 14-county Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The overarching goal of the COC is to facilitate the reduction of cancer health disparities by leveraging the strengths of community partners to support and enhance cancer research and outreach efforts which will be addressed by the following Specific Aims: 1) enhance community collaborations to accelerate research and implementation of programs and policy designed to reduce cancer burden and disparities; 2) facilitate strategic research and diverse/inclusive clinical trial participation relevant to community needs; and 3) develop innovative outreach and education strategies to support capacity building of MVTCP stakeholders. These aims will be achieved through the collaboration of the COC with other MVTCP cores, through a robust Community Advisory Board (CAB), and through regularly consulting with MVTCP research projects. Given the significant regional mortality disparity among Black (compared to white) men with prostate cancer, a CAB member representing the Prostate Cancer Coalition of Tennessee collaborated on the pilot work that led to the submission of a full project in this renewal on prostate cancer. The higher regional rates of ovarian cancer led to the formation of an ovarian cancer support group established through a CAB member, enabling ongoing support of a pilot project focused on ovarian cancer. The COC will facilitate bi-directional communications, bringing community input to the projects and disseminating results to the community. Furthermore, MVTCP investigators leading research projects will provide presentations to the CAB and receive feedback on presenting to lay audiences. With coordination through the Administrative Core, the COC will collaborate with the Translational Pathology and Population Research and Clinical Trials in Cancer Equity Shared Resource Cores to develop an educational module about biospecimen donation. With the Research Education Core students will be engaged in community outreach utilizing new technologies aiming to reduce cancer disparities. The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource Core will provide input on quantitative analyses required for CEnR projects. The Planning and Evaluation Core will participate in the