University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center researchers and physicians announced today that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has approved UK Markey Cancer Center's proposal for funding to establish the Kentucky Prevention Research Center (PRC). This prestigious grant will award UK Markey Cancer Center about $1.8 million over three years, pending final approval from the CDC.
The Kentucky PRC will conduct research designed to reduce cancer incidence and mortality in central Appalachia through prevention and early detection efforts. Researchers at the Center will concentrate their work on cervical, colorectal and lung cancers and will focus their efforts in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
U.S. Rep. Ernie Fletcher of the Sixth District of Kentucky, who was instrumental in assuring funding of the Kentucky PRC, also participated in the announcement.
"Kentucky has the third highest cancer rate in the United States," Fletcher said. "With research efforts at institutions such as the Kentucky Prevention Research Center at the UK Markey Cancer Center, we are working hard to reduce the burden of cancer in central Appalachia."
The UK Markey Cancer Center's goals during the next three years are to:
- begin studies to understand the cancer problem and risk factors in central Appalachia;
- design, implement and evaluate intervention strategies;
- link the research to public health and clinical practice;
- and provide cancer prevention and control research training opportunities to clinicians and scientists throughout central Appalachia.
The CDC currently is funding PRCs at 23 institutions, including University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of California at Los Angeles, Harvard University, Yale University, and The Johns Hopkins University. Research at the PRCs is focused on behaviors that are linked to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and oral health disease, with each Center having a specialty focus. The Kentucky PRC is the only PRC in the nation with a focus on cancer.
Researchers at PRCs also are very competitive for research grants, obtaining about $500,000 to $1 million in research grants each year in addition to the core funding.
"Grants such as these, which expand the UK Chandler Medical Center research base and enhance its national reputation, are key to the Medical Center's goal of becoming a top-20 academic health center," said James W. Holsinger Jr., M.D., Ph.D., chancellor of the UK Chandler Medical Center.
"The Kentucky Prevention Research Center will further strengthen UK Markey Cancer Center's Cancer Control Program and help central Appalachian residents and health care providers understand and address the barriers to cancer prevention and early detection," said Stephen Wyatt, D.M.D., associate director of cancer control at the UK Markey Cancer Center and the principal investigator for this grant.