# Improving Survivorship Care for Diverse Cancer Patients Cared for in Safety-net Settings

> **NIH NIH K24** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $166,278

## Abstract

Project Abstract
With nearly 15 million cancer survivors in the United States (U.S.), survivorship care is a growing concern. The
aging population, early cancer detection, and improved therapies have all contributed to the increase in cancer
survivorship. Cancer survivors have specific health care needs related to late complications of treatment, risk
for cancer recurrence, and mental health impact. There is significant variation in the extent to which cancer
specialists and primary care providers manage care for cancer survivors and coordinate with each other.
These factors can lead to gaps in care, which can in turn lead to adverse outcomes. Safety-net health care
systems, which care for low-income and vulnerable populations, face challenges in providing optimal cancer
survivorship care due to severe and ongoing resource constraints, including a shortage of subspecialty care
and a lack of health information technology (HIT) infrastructure. This application proposes a 5-year career
development plan in patient-oriented research for the candidate to expand her mentoring work with early
career researchers focused on cancer survivorship care in safety net settings serving diverse populations. In
alignment with mentoring plans, the proposal outlines three specific research aims: 1) Characterize the
underlying causes of missed monitoring using root cause analysis; 2) Investigate the role of survivorship care
plans for diverse patients living with colorectal, prostate, and breast cancers; and 3) Employ implementation
science methods to gather stakeholder input on challenges in post-treatment/ survivorship care for diverse
patients treated in safety-net settings across California and initiate development of a health information
technology-enabled care coordination tool. This proposal will leverage existing federally-funded resources to
enhance mentoring in patient-oriented research in cancer survivorship disparities and implementation
sciences. Findings from this proposal will lay the groundwork to provide optimal care for all cancer survivors,
including those at risk for health disparities and those cared for in resource-constrained safety-net health
systems.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9962305
- **Project number:** 5K24CA212294-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Urmimala Sarkar
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $166,278
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9962305

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9962305, Improving Survivorship Care for Diverse Cancer Patients Cared for in Safety-net Settings (5K24CA212294-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9962305. Licensed CC0.

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