Abstract
Purpose
National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers are required to consider their impact on the catchment area they serve. These activities are facilitated by community outreach and engagement (COE) activities as specified in the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) request for applications. While the critical importance of COE activities to NCI-designated cancer centers is well known, it is less clear what impact the COE component has on the overall CCSG merit descriptor and score.
Methods
We undertook an online survey of all 62 NCI-designated Comprehensive and Clinical centers who reported their COE merit descriptor and overall CCSG priority score as of Fall 2021.
Results
Of 48 (77%) of responding centers, we identified a strong correlation between the COE merit descriptor and the overall numerical CCSG score received by the center (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient r = 0.360, p = 0.0053). When stratifying this relationship by center type, we observed a very strong correlation between COE and CCSG ratings for comprehensive cancer centers (n = 40; r = 0.544; p = 0.0003) but not for non-comprehensive cancer centers (n = 8; r = 0.073; p = 0.864).
Conclusion
COE component merit descriptors for comprehensive cancer center CCSG evaluations are strongly correlated with the overall cancer center review score.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Data availability
Primary data reported here are available upon request from the authors.
References
National Cancer Institute (2021) Cancer Center Support Grants (CCSGs) for NCI-designated cancer centers. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-21-321.html. Accessed Jan 15 2023
National Cancer Institute (2012) Cancer Center Support Grants (CCSGs) for NCI-designated cancer centers (P30) (PAR-12–298). https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-12-298.html. Accessed Jan 15 2023
National Cancer Institute (2016) Cancer Center Support Grants (CCSGs) for NCI-designated cancer centers (P30) (PAR-17-095)
Paskett ED, Hiatt RA (2018) Catchment areas and community outreach and engagement: the new mandate for NCI-designated cancer centers. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev 27(5):517–519
Hiatt RA, Kobetz EN, Paskett ED (2022) Catchment areas, community outreach and engagement revisited: the 2021 guidelines for Cancer Center Support Grants from the National Cancer Institute. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 15(6):349–354
Alaniz M et al (2023) Survey report of community outreach and engagement activities at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, Boston
Funding
Funding support for this work was provided by the Cancer Center Support Grant of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (P30-CA006516).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MA and TRR were responsible for data collection, analysis, manuscript writing, and editing. Both authors approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Alaniz, M., Rebbeck, T.R. The role of community outreach and engagement in evaluation of NCI Cancer Center Support Grants. Cancer Causes Control 35, 73–75 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01770-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01770-3