March 01, 2009

Addressing Risk and Optimizing Treatment Outcomes 

(New York City, NY - March 1, 2009 ) - The NYU Cancer Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center held the first annual educational conference, Cancer and Minorities: Addressing Risk and Optimizing Treatment Outcomes sponsored by The NYU Post- Graduate Medical School and the NYU Cancer Institute CORE (Cancer Outreach, Outcomes, and Research for Equity) Center. The conference primarily targeted all healthcare professionals working with minority populations who might be at risk for cancer. The conference took place on Friday, December 12, 2008 at NYU School of Medicine.

The Course Directors of this year's conference were, Francesca Gany, M.D., M..S. director, CORE Center and Center for Immigrant Health and Deborah Axelrod M.D., director of Clinical Breast Services of the NYU Cancer Institute.

This year's course focused on effective cancer risk reduction, screening and treatment needs to reflect disparate incidence and mortality rates and the multiple cancer care barriers faced by medically underserved minorities. These include linguistic, cultural, financial and legal factors. Research on prostate, breast, gastric, and oral cancers were highlighted due to the heightened risk in particular minority populations. In addition to addressing access barriers, screening controversies in immigrant minorities were discussed. Nationwide, ethnic minorities have disproportionately high rates of being uninsured, which can result in the delaying or forgoing of screening and treatment, with potentially dire consequences. Communication is the cornerstone of effective, quality cancer care, from primary prevention to survivorship.

At the NYU Cancer Institute, one of the missions of the CORE Center is to determine effective intervention strategies to reduce social and cultural barriers that have had a major impact on the burden of cancer in this country. CORE's vast network of community based organizations, health care providers and policy linkages is working to overcome these barriers to address disparities faced by immigrant and minority communities in cancer prevention, detection, treatment,survivorship, and research. CORE is focusing on African American, Chinese, Haitian , Latino, Arab, and South Asian immigrants. CORE is conducting extensive community-based participatory education, screening, clinical care, research, and training to bring develop and bring evidence based cancer interventions to these communities to reduce cancer health disparities for immigrant and minority populations.

NYU Faculty Speakers Included:
William L. Carroll, M.D., director of the NYU Cancer Institute, gave introductory remarks, Francesca Gany, M.D., director, Center for Immigrant Health, discussed Access to Healthcare: Barriers Among Immigrants, Iman Osman, M.D., Director of the IMCG and Associate Professor of Medicince ( oncology), discussed "Controversies in Prostate Cancer", Fritz Francois, M.D., Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Diversity discussed "Gastric Cancer in High Rish Populations" Silvia Formenti, M.D., Chair, department of radiation oncology, discussed "Locally Advanced Invasive Breast Cancer", Alexander Ross Kerr, D.D.S., M.S.D., discussed "Growing Smokeless Tobacco and Oral Cancer Epidemic", Donna Shelley, M.D., M.P.H., clinical associate professor of at NYU School of Medicine. The guest faculty and keynote speaker of this year's conference was Lovell Jones, Ph.D., director Center for Research on Minority Health at MD Anderson Cancer Center, who discussed "The Medically Underserved and Cancer".

About CORE
The Cancer Outreach, Outcomes, and Research for Equity (CORE) Center at the NYU Cancer Institute addresses disparities in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship among immigrant and minority communities in the New York City. We partner with the community to design and implement inter-institutional cross-disciplinary research, education, information dissemination, and program and policy development.

CORE focuses on cancer disparities among African American, Chinese, Haitian, Latino, Arab, African, Caribbean, Russian, Polish, and South Asian immigrants. The CORE Center conducts extensive community-based participatory education, screening, clinical care, research, and training programs to overcome barriers to care and to bring evidence-based cancer interventions to medically underserved communities. For more information about core please visit: http://ci.med.nyu.edu/community-outreach-and-education/core-center

About CME
The NYU Post-Graduate Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The NYU Post-Graduate Medical School designates this educational activity for a maximum of 4 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. To obtain CME credit, you must: (1) have your ID badge electronic ally scanned for attendance once each day, and (2) access our website, www.med.nyu.edu/cme, and click on the Online Course Evaluator/CME Credit Process (follow all instructions to receive instantaneous letter of credit). Disclosure Statement The NYU Post-Graduate Medical School adheres to the ACCME Essential Areas and Policies, including the Standards for Commercial Support, regarding industry support of continuing medical education. In order to resolve any identified Conflicts of Interest, disclosure information is provided during the planning process to ensure resolution of any identified conflicts. Disclosure of faculty and commercial relationships as well as the discussion of unlabeled or unapproved use of any drug, device or procedure by the faculty will be fully noted at the meeting.

About NYU Cancer Institute
The mission of the NYU Cancer Institute is to discover the origins of human cancer and to use that knowledge to eradicate the personal and societal burden of cancer in our community, the nation and the world. NYU Cancer Institute is an NCI-designated Cancer Center.

Contact:
Jennifer Berman
NYU Cancer Institute
212-263-8670
Jennifer.Berman@nyumc.org

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