Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez to Launch $4.1 Million Cancer Health Research Center in South Texas

Share On Social!

Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of UT Health San Antonio is launching the new ACS Avanzando Center thanks to a 4-year, $4.08-million grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS).

The ACS Avanzando Center, which began work in February 2023, is a response to the severe cancer burden in South Texas.

The center will unite South Texas research scholars and the community to improve health across the cancer care continuum by targeting the non-medical drivers of health that prevent people from obtaining equitable care.

“Our new center will conduct a unique combination of community-engaged research, training, patient assessment, and promotion to address the non-medical drivers of health, such as financial strain and food insecurity, to improve access to cancer care, prevention, early detection, and treatment in South Texas,” said Ramirez, leader of the Salud America! health program, and head of the Department of Population Health Sciences and the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.

“We aim to help reduce the risks for South Texans in developing cancer and improving their quality of life should they be diagnosed with cancer.”

Visit the program website.

Why Is the ACS Avanzando Center Needed?

Nearly 5 million people live in South Texas, which stretches from San Antonio south to the Texas-Mexico border.

Some people in South Texas are at disproportionately greater risk of having liver cancer (64%), cervical cancer (46%), gallbladder cancer (8%), gastric cancer (4%), and pediatric leukemia (32%) than peers in the rest of Texas and the U.S., according to Ramirez’s 2018 South Texas Health Status Review.

Behind these issues are the non-medical drivers of health.

• Lack of health insurance: 30% in South Texas are uninsured; 23% in Texas.
• Care: 44.8% in South Texas don’t have a usual source of healthcare; 31.9% in Texas.
• Financial strain: 25% in South Texas live in poverty; 15.8% in Texas.
• Income: 22% in South Texas earned less than 150% of the federal poverty line; 14.9% in Texas.
• Education: 30% in South Texas are not high-school graduates; 16.3% in Texas.
• Language: 41% in South Texas speak Spanish as their primary language; 29.3% in Texas.

“The ACS Avanzando Center will target these very issues that contribute to such a heavy cancer burden across South Texans,” Ramirez said.

What Will the ACS Avanzando Center Do?

The ACS Avanzando Center aims to be the driving force in South Texas and the nation for building health, providing quality cancer care, decreasing the burden of cancer, and improving health outcomes.

The center will create a collaborative environment with the community to:

Conduct several scholar-led cancer control research projects. The center will coordinate and provide leadership, mentoring, and support for these two research scholars.

• Allison Grimes, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and investigator with the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at UT Health San Antonio, aims to increase vaccination in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.
• Patricia Chalela, DrPH, associate professor at the Institute of Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, aims to improve breast cancer treatment adherence.
• Dr. Ramon Cancino, associate professor/clinical in the Department of Family & Community Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and director of the UT Health Physicians Primary Care Center, and Dr. Rebecca Jones, faculty associate at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, will focus on improving colorectal cancer screening adherence.

Additional research scholar projects could be added over time.

Screen cancer patients for the non-medical drivers of health. The center will change the electronic health record at UT Health San Antonio and the Mays Cancer Center to systematically screen patients for the non-medical drivers of health. The change will automatically activate follow-up by a center navigator, who will connect the patient with needed institutional and community resources and facilitate coordinated care through partnerships with the university’s Primary Care Center and Regional Physician Network, community organizations, and Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Engage research scholars and community in education and promotion for changes that improve health. For the center, Ramirez’s Salud America! health program will apply its national communication efforts locally to create peer-modeled content and education toolkits for on-the-ground changes.

Create a tailored mentoring program, webinar series, and connection to local/national mentoring resources. The center will enhance the ability of the four research scholars and other early-to-mid-career faculty researchers at the Mays Cancer Center to understand and integrate the non-medical drivers of health in their future cancer research interventions in cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and survivorship.

“By increasing research, mentoring, system changes, and a standardized screener to identify patients who experience issues with the non-medical drivers of health, the Mays Cancer Center will be in better position to deliver comprehensive cancer care to its patients across South Texas, creating greater health for all,” Ramirez said.

Who is the Team Behind the ACS Avanzando Center?

The ACS Avanzando Center will be headquartered at UT Health San Antonio in alignment with its Mays Cancer Center, an NCI-Designated Cancer Center.

“We welcome the Center as an opportunity to further elevate UT Health San Antonio’s [rich Hispanic heritage], regionally, and contextually tailored cancer education, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment by increasingly addressing the non-medical drivers of health in South Texas,” said Dr. Robert Hromas, dean of the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio.

Heading the ACS Avanzando Center is Ramirez.

Ramirez has conducted pioneering research over three decades to improve health outcomes in South Texas and beyond. She has led a 20-year NCI-funded multi-site research and training network on cancer (Redes En Acción) and leads a national communication program to create healthy changes for all families (Salud America!).

Ramirez also is leader of the Mays Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement team. The team has led successes to promote HPV vaccination and cancer screening, create innovative smartphone apps to reduce smoking and promote cancer treatment adherence, and increase accrual of patients into cancer clinical trials.

Ramirez will work closely with the Mays Cancer Center and Community Advisory Board to engage the community across all center activities toward improving health.

These members will help scholars with community-responsive research, guide efforts toward local healthy changes, engage in mentoring and training efforts, and catalyze community partnerships to address patients’ non-medical drivers of health:

• Amanda Ramirez, Cancer Survivor and Founder of Mandy’s Fight
• Sandi Stanford, Patient Survivor and Leader at the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation
• Jennifer Puryear, BS, Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships Manager, American Cancer Society South Region Research Liaison
• Donna Rankin, BS, Cancer Control Strategic Partnerships Manager, American Cancer Society San Antonio
• Julie Bazan, MHA, CHW, Director of the Mid Rio Grande Border AHEC
• Belinda Flores, RN, Director of the South Coastal AHEC
• Brenda Hoffman, MA, LPC, CHW, Director of the Southwest Border AHEC
• Janna Lesser, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director of the South Texas AHEC
• Armando Lopez, MPH, Director of the Lower Rio Grande Valley AHEC
• Paula Winkler, MEd, Director of the South Central AHEC
• Jose Zapata, Jr., MSS, Manager of Academic Programs at UT Health South Texas AHEC
• Jennifer Knoulton, RN, Vice President of Regional Operations at Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas
• Fernando Martinez, PhD, Community Health Worker Program Coordinator at Northwest Vista College
• Erine Ercoline, MBA, Executive Director of ThriveWell
• Elizabeth Lutz, MBA, Executive Director of the Health Collaborative, Bexar County Community Health Leadership
• Mary Jimenez, BBA, Vice President of Strategic Account Management at Caris Life Sciences.
• Carlos V. Rodriguez, City of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District
• Dolores Garcia, BS, Project Coordinator for Community Outreach and Engagement, Mays Cancer Center, UT Health San Antonio
• Susan Padalecki, PhD, Associate Professor of Urology and Cellular and Structural Biology, and Associate Director for Research Administration, Mays Cancer Center, UT Health San Antonio

“With this level of community engagement, we expect the ACS Avanzando Center to not only improve cancer care and outcomes for people in South Texas, but also to advance a new generation of scholars and researchers concerned with cancer research and education,” Ramirez said

Ramirez expressed her thanks to the American Cancer Society for supporting establishment of the ACS Avanzando Center.

The new center is one of 89 extramural discovery science grants funded through a $54.3-million investment by the American Cancer Society.

“We are proud to announce these new grant awardees and their research projects,” said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, in a news release. “It’s very exciting, as we will fund studies that will increase our understanding of genetics and cancer risk and explore better ways to find, treat, and survive cancer.”