Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network has released three videos on cancer issues and research methods that were used to train Redes En Acción researchers and patient navigators in Miami and San Antonio and Austin, Texas, who are involved in a study examining how patient navigators who use the LIVESTRONG Cancer Navigation Services Program can improve the quality of life of Latino breast, colorectal and prostate cancer survivors. The videos are designed specifically for the study, funded by the National Cancer Institute; but the videos may be useful in any patient navigator studies involving Latinos. Video 1 teaches researchers and patient navigators the proper steps on how to manage a potential mental health emergency or psychological related emergency that may ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. Maria Priscilla Brietzke
Houston, Texas After seeing how media can help improve Latinas’ health behavior during a practicum along the Texas-Mexico Border, Maria Priscilla Brietzke believes that small changes have big power to help the disadvantaged. Brietzke, who currently is a research assisting at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston School of Nursing, is focusing on making both small and large changes in age-related chronic illness. Because she had questions about balancing work and life in a doctoral-level research career, she took a friend’s ...
Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series that will highlight the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s work in Latino communities across the country. When his only child Emilio died of cancer shortly before his sixth birthday, Richard Nares found his world was shattered. As he and his wife tried to put their lives back together, Nares realized his priorities had changed. “All I wanted to do was help other families who were going through what we went through,” said Nares, who was an artist and picture framer. Putting his family’s tragedy and hard-earned knowledge to use, Nares and his wife Diane established the Emilio Nares Foundation to transport underprivileged families whose children are battling cancer to their medical visits at Rady Children’s Hospital ...
Increasing rates of obesity and diabetes may be contributing to a steep rise in liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), among Latinos in the U.S., particularly in Texas. Overall U.S. HCC rates grew from 1.7 cases to 5 cases per 100,000 from 1980 to 2005, and reached 7.5 cases per 100,000 among Latinos, according to data presented at a recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference by Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Dr. Ramirez and her colleagues also found that Latinos accounted for about 33% of HCC cases in Texas and 75% of cases in South Texas, while also documenting corresponding increases in the prevalence of obesity ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. Marina Daldalian
Kansas City, Kan. Growing up, Marina Daldalian’s mother, the daughter of a migrant worker, and her father, a native of Lebanon, taught her the importance of education and about caring for those with few resources. As she volunteered locally and abroad for several years, a focus on health became Daldalian’s calling. In Kansas City, Kan., Daldalian is a master’s of public health degree student at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she also serves as a research assistant in the JUNTOS center for Advancing Latino Health in the Department of ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. Christina Munoz-Masso
Puerto Rico Christina Munoz-Masso works hard to improve the health of boricuas—Puerto Ricans—and Latinos in general. She is an epidemiologist at the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center. She coordinates a study investigating DNA methylation in leukemia patients and collaborates on a population-based study on cervical cancer. After Munoz-Masso graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in biology, she applied for a master’s degree in epidemiology because it allowed her to combine science with helping people. To add an ...
LIVESTRONG recently announced the creation of an iPad App to help people manage their cancer experience. The app, called LIVESTRONG Cancer Guide App + Tracker, lets you store and access information relevant to your treatment and survivorship electronically to your iPad. The tracker helps you track your daily symptoms, provides space for you to journal your experience, keep track of important records and contact information. The app's Cancer Guide will help you know what to expect, learn what questions to ask, and connect to resources. Read more about the app or watch a video here or ...
Editor's Note: This is the testimonial of a graduate of the 2011 Summer Institute of Èxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training. Read more testimonials here or apply by March 1 for the 2012 Èxito! program. Donaji Stelzig
Houston, Texas Contributing in several research studies at the University of Texas School of Public Health’s Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research in Houston, Mexico native Donaji Stelzig developed a desire to work with minority populations, promote opportunities, and foster team work with diverse background community members. Since then, she’s become a full-time senior health education specialist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Division of Public Affairs, carrying out community outreach. Stelzig is part of many ...
The 2012 Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training application is now available for download! Éxito! conducts a five-day summer institute and offers internships to encourage minority master’s-level students and master’s trained health professionals to pursue a doctoral degree and a career in Latino cancer health disparities research. The 2012 summer institute is June 7-12, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas. Éxito! participants also are eligible to receive one of six paid internships (see details in application). How exactly can the program benefit you? Ask Mariana Arevalo, a graduate of the 2011 Éxito! program: "Éxito! was a boost of confidence and a tremendous encouragement for me to apply to doctoral programs. Now more than ever, I’m confident that Latino researchers ...
