Cancer Prevention from the Viewpoint of UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center

Abstract

Prevention is a cornerstone of the guiding mission of the University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is “to reduce the burden of cancer for the patients of today, through skilled, integrated, and compassionate care and to eliminate the threat of cancer for the patients of tomorrow, through research and education in an environment that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.” We find it useful to conceptualize different opportunities for cancer prevention using NCI’s Health Behaviors Research Branch’s multilevel translational framework. The latter considers three intersecting continuums: cancer control—from prevention through survivorship; translation—from basic sciences to dissemination and implementation; and level of influence or impact—from genetics to policy. An advantage of this heuristic is that “prevention” is inherently defined as an inter-programmatic concept cutting across basic, clinical, and population science research rather than solely as a programmatic domain of Population Sciences. Through the UVA community outreach and engagement, we apply this multilevel framework to mitigate the social determinants of cancer risk and outcomes that drive cancer inequities in our catchment area. Below, we provide examples of our prevention research and translation along the model continuums and focus on equity.