Posted on August 7, 2001 at 3:27 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center is joining with Tuskegee University and Atlanta’s Morehouse University to form a “research triangle” in the South that will attack disparate rates of cancer mortality of African-Americans.
The partnerships between UAB and the two prominent minority institutions are being developed through grant awards from the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Edward Partridge of UAB said the federal program funds similar projects around the country. “We hope to use the unique resources of each institution to complement each other to take strong steps toward eliminating the cancer mortality gap that exists between the African-American and the Caucasian populations,” he said.
Partridge, associate director of the cancer center’s cancer control and populations sciences division, is UAB’s principal investigator in the collaboration with Morehouse. Dr. Mona Fouad, a preventive medicine professor, leads UAB’s partnership with Tuskegee. Their counterparts are Dr. Joel Okoli, a surgical oncologist, of Morehouse, and Dr. Timothy Turner, a biologist, of Tuskegee.
Fouad said the relationship with Tuskegee is especially significant. “We expect Tuskegee’s Center for Bioethics to play an integral role in the project. That center is an outgrowth of the federal apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Research project. A sensitivity to the concerns of African Americans about that discredited research will be a unique contribution of our Tuskegee partners,” she said.
UAB and Morehouse are now in a full partnership, with funded research already under way involving co-investigators from both institutions. In addition, a community outreach component has been designed, and a training program will begin next year.
The UAB/Tuskegee relationship is operating under a planning grant, which includes plans for training and career development, cancer research, education and community outreach.
The partnerships pair federally designated comprehensive cancer centers such as UAB and institutions of higher learning that historically serve minorities.
Fouad said, “The minority-serving partners do not have our environment of research facilities, experience and training to compete for research awards. What they do bring to the table are unique perspectives that can contribute training in cultural sensitivity and can help pinpoint the needs of the community.”
Partridge said, “We can complement each other with mutual benefits for all. Together we can build an infrastructure for the transfer of knowledge and training to minority institutions. More minority scientists will be developed and drawn into cancer research. Cancer research will become more effective, applicable to all races, with the result of identifying ways to overcome the increased rates of death of African-Americans in cancers such as prostate and colon disease.”