# Cancer in Your Community: Strategies to Reduce Cancer and Chronic Disease in the Arkansas Delta

> **NIH NIH OT2** · ARKANSAS CANCER COALITION · 2024 · $375,000

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Access to lung, breast, and colorectal cancer screening is low in the rural Arkansas Delta
region, resulting in disproportionate cancer mortality and low life expectancy. To reduce cancer
health disparities, the Arkansas Cancer Coalition’s Community-led Health Equity Team will
investigate how a multisectoral coalition process can lead to sustainable interventions that
reduce transportation inequities and increase demand for cancer screening in St. Francis
County. St. Francis County, located in the rural Arkansas Delta region, is ranked among the
least healthy counties in Arkansas and overall cancer mortality exceeds the national average.
The Arkansas Cancer Coalition, the only statewide coalition that aims to reduce the burden of
cancer in Arkansas, is uniquely positioned to execute a multilevel social-structural intervention
that seeks to achieve transportation equity. MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement and
Track) and National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Framework will
guide the community-led local coalition’s mixed-methods needs assessment that will inform the
development and testing of a multilevel socio-structural intervention. Our novel approach seeks
to 1) change county-level transportation systems that reduce poverty, transportation, and time
burdens; 2) leverage regular access to mobile breast and lung cancer screening units; 3) work
with partners to change policies to expand the reach of fecal immunochemical test screening
and colonoscopy follow-up; and 4) work with health systems to build a sustainable reminder
infrastructure that increases screening demand in rural areas. This project could have a
significant impact on reducing the cancer burden on rural, underserved, poor and Black/African
American people.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11167946
- **Project number:** 3OT2OD035764-01S1
- **Recipient organization:** ARKANSAS CANCER COALITION
- **Principal Investigator:** Miriam N. Karanja
- **Activity code:** OT2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $375,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2023-09-21 → 2025-04-07

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11167946

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11167946, Cancer in Your Community: Strategies to Reduce Cancer and Chronic Disease in the Arkansas Delta (3OT2OD035764-01S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11167946. Licensed CC0.

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