What CDC is Doing

Download the 2006/2007 Hematologic Cancer Initiatives Fact Sheet (PDF-310KB).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds efforts to improve the awareness, diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of hematologic cancers (cancers of the blood and bone marrow).

Accomplishments*

• In 2004, Congress encouraged CDC to support the development of interactive, Web-based education for health care providers on the signs of, symptoms of, and current treatments for hematologic cancers. Through a competitive process, CDC awarded funding to the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center to design a Web site about hematologic cancers. The site offers professional training courses free of charge to nurses, pharmacists, primary care physicians, hematologists, and oncologists, concerning the diagnosis and treatment of hematologic cancers.
Clinical consultation services are also available online at www.hemoncedu.org.
 
• Community Media Productions created A Lion in the House, an Emmy^® Award-winning Public Broadcasting System television documentary on childhood cancer, which follows five children of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. They also created a website for survivors entitled "Survivor Alert" which offers information, links to resources, and recommendations for action for young adult cancer survivors and the health professionals who treat them. For more information visit www.lioninthehouse.com and www.survivoralert.org.
   
• Institute for Continuing Healthcare Education (formally Vox Medica) Conducted and evaluated professional education events for primary healthcare professionals. Created a website to deliver education materials to primary healthcare professionals and share information from collaborators (www.hopingdocs.org/about.aspx)
   
• The International Myeloma Foundation expanded outreach to African-Americans, the elderly, the underserved, the uninsured, and the under-insured to educate them about myeloma; http://myeloma.org/.
   
• Research Triangle Institute partnered with the American Cancer Society to develop comprehensive catalog and report summarizing 293 hematologic cancer resources currently available; www.rti.org.
   
• University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center designed a Web site about hematologic cancers. The site offers professional training courses and continuing education credits to clinicians on diagnosis and treatment of hematologic cancers and provides clinical consultation services online. The University of Colorado provides education to primary care providers as well as hematologists and oncologists; www.hemoncedu.org.

Ongoing Work*

CDC funds public and private, nonprofit and for-profit national organizations to increase awareness of—and education about—hematologic cancers. This project is designed to provide information to patients, their family members, their friends, their caregivers, and their health care providers. Following is a description of nine cooperative agreements funded through this outreach:

• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is working to address disparities in patient access to clinical trials by providing training to oncology nurses, addressing cultural gaps for Hispanic and other underserved patients by removing barriers to cancer care, and providing a proactive patient navigation system to patients with the greatest need for immediate and ongoing support; www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls/.
   
• Lymphoma Research Foundation continues to increase awareness of, and access to, lymphoma-specific education resources and patient support services by broadening its outreach to underserved minority/immigrant populations and lower literacy English-speaking patients. LRF is developing, testing, and disseminating new education resources for underserved lymphoma patients, family members, friends, and caregivers for which no materials currently exist; www.lymphoma.org.
   
• Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) continues its efforts to better reach underserved populations by increasing awareness of Multiple Myeloma (MM) treatment options and clinical trials among health care providers, improving reach and effectiveness of MM patient education strategies, and increasing awareness of MMRF patient resources among patient and provider; www.multiplemyeloma.org.
   
• National Marrow Donor Program is providing new education and resources to the transplant survivorship community through partnerships. It is also expanding survivorship programs and resources to focus on medically underserved communities, and increasing access to existing programs/resources for hematologic cancer survivors; www.marrow.org.
   
• Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) will work with disease-specific organizations to produce new educational materials and will also continue providing outreach opportunities to patients and health care providers; www.patientadvocate.org.

Newly Funded Projects^†*

• Education Network to Advance Cancer Clinical Trials, Inc. (ENACCT) is conducting a pilot project aimed at educating newly diagnosed/newly recurred patients about treatment options including clinical trial treatment options. In addition, ENACCT aims to increase awareness of support services, enhance cultural competency skills of clinical trial investigators and their teams, and disseminate information about clinical trial services; www.enacct.org/index.php.
   
• Oregon Health and Science University Cancer Institute is providing educational materials for adolescent and young adult hematologic cancer survivors by revising currently available materials, developing treatment summaries, and using electronic medical records to disseminate educational materials and information; www.ohsucancer.com.
   
• SuperSibs! Sibling Survivors Education and Information Dissemination Program is providing information about hematologic cancers to cancer survivors and their family members, friends, and caregivers. SuperSibs! supports, honors, and recognizes siblings of children diagnosed with cancer by disseminating tailor-made information and education packages that encourage open communication, catharsis, and support between parents, friends, teachers, and children; www.supersibs.org.

Future Directions

The hematologic grantees have developed a wealth of materials for educating the public, patients and providers. Future directions include facilitating collaborations between Comprehensive Cancer Control grantees to expand awareness of and use of these materials.

For more information on CDC’s National Comprehensive Cancer Program go to: www.cdc.gov/cancer/ncccp/

^† Indicates programs previously funded under Program Announcement 04519

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*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.