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Just like fingerprints are tailored to the individual they belong to, no two cancer survivor stories are the same.
Yet, every single one is important.
“Every story is unique, and every story is worth understanding and learning from,” said Dr. Derek Rodriguez.
Dr. Rodriguez is the research scientist helping lead the Avanzando Caminos Hispanic/Latino Cancer Survivorship study team at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio.
Everyone’s cancer journey is different and paved with unique challenges and obstacles that define treatment, quality of life, and long-lasting health impacts, he explained.
And that’s exactly what the dedicated Avanzando Caminos team is trying to get to the bottom of by collecting the stories of survivors.
Let’s dive into what the Avanzando Caminos study is all about and meet members of the team looking to make a difference for cancer survivors living in the South Texas area.
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The Avanzando Caminos Study
The Avanzando Caminos Hispanic/Latino Cancer Survivorship study is a longitudinal observational study that explores the factors that mark the Hispanic/Latino cancer survivorship journey in South Texas.
The study, led by Dr. Amelie Ramirez of UT Health San Antonio and Mays Cancer Center, is specifically looking at factors such as the community, familial, behavioral, mental, biological, and medical impacts on life after cancer.
Under the management of Dr. Rodriguez, the study team is meeting with 1,500 participants in South Texas over the course of seven study visits spread out over five years in hopes that certain patterns may emerge.
By isolating this data, the study team hopes to address inconsistencies in cancer care related to the non-medical drivers of health and come up with interventions that ultimately go toward bettering the lives of future cancer survivors.
Through the study experience, Dr. Rodriguez hopes it gives cancer survivors an opportunity to process what they’ve been through.
“We want to be able to promote healing because for the first time in a long time, this may be someone’s first opportunity to give their cancer story,” Dr. Rodriguez told Salud America! “We want to be able to empower others to share their story as well. And we want to be able to better understand, detect, treat, and prevent cancer in the long run for other future survivors.”
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Meet the Avanzando Caminos Team
Dr. Derek Rodriguez
Dr. Derek Rodriguez is a research scientist at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio. He also serves as the program manager for the Avanzando Caminos study.
Dr. Rodriguez graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 2013 from Texas State University and went on to pursue a master’s in biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio before obtaining a PhD in translational science at the joint translational science program at UT Health San Antonio.
As a childhood cancer survivor, Dr. Rodriguez is able to use his experience to help other cancer survivors find their voices and share their stories.
“Interacting with the patients is really rewarding because, as a survivor, I can not only relate my own stories with them, but I get to also understand where they were coming from.”
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Natalie Rodriguez
Natalie is a senior research assistant at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, where she supports the Avanzando Caminos study. She also serves as the research coordinator for a Susan G. Komen-sponsored study focused on wellness interventions for breast cancer survivors.
Natalie earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology and immunology with a minor in chemistry from UT San Antonio in 2021, followed by a master’s in business in 2022.
While working on the study, she is using her second-generation Hispanic/Latino background to help participants feel comfortable enough to share their experience.
“My favorite part about interacting with a patient is when I can see the common threads between us. I come from a Latino/Hispanic background, and most of the time a lot of our participants are first, second generation, which is something I can truly relate to. Coming from my mom being first generation and me as a second-generation American, there’s a lot of cultural ties that bring us together.”
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Ysabel Rose Vargas Lew
Ysabel is a research assistant with the Avanzando Caminos study. She graduated from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, with a bachelor’s dgeree in public health in 2019.
Given her Hispanic and Chinese background, Ysabel is reaching out to survivors who identify as Hispanic/Latino with other origins and heritages as well. She is also using her family’s history with cancer as motivation for helping survivors.
“I am half Mexican, half Chinese. And on my Mexican side of the family, my uncle and my cousin are prostate and thymus cancer survivors. And their cancer survivorship journey has been met with many challenges.”
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Juan Carlos Nevarez Ramos
Juan joins the Avanzando Caminos team as a research assistant all the way from Tijuana, Mexico, which he moved from in 2007 with his family.
He went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in arts from UT Austin.
He has embraced the Texas lifestyle as a Lone Star State transplant and is using his passion for South Texas to help survivors navigate their cancer experiences.
“The study is important to me because I think of it as my way of giving back to the community. What I feel is most rewarding is meeting with participants who may not feel heard and help them discover the power of their voice by sharing what they went through.”
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Jacqueline Cardenas
Native Spanish speaker Jacqueline Cardenas works with the Avanzando Caminos team as a research assistant. She received her bachelor’s degree in applied exercise physiology from Texas A&M University – College Station.
Jacqeline looks forward to being a friendly face that participants can confide in knowing they share some similarities in their backgrounds.
“My favorite part about interacting with patients is the patients being comfortable with us knowing that we also come from a Hispanic, Mexican background. So being able to see some similarities and some comfort within us.”
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Britney Esperanza Ortiz
Coming to the Institute for Health Promotion Research from the Valley in South Texas, Britney obtained her bachelor’s degree in public health with a concentration in epidemiology and disease control at UTSA.
Britney is about to embark on the next step in her education by attending UT Austin in hopes of one day becoming an oncology nurse practitioner.
Through her work with Avanzando Caminos, Britney discovered an interest in colorectal cancer — an interest that reached its peak when her father was diagnosed with it. She used what she knew of the cancer from her patients to help her father through his treatment. Now, she is now striving to help others suffering with the disease.
“I am able to really understand and capture their stories in a way that I feel is different than somebody else, because I have a deeper understanding, and it has really tightened my bonds with these participants … I can understand their difficulties as I also went through them, and some of them have gone through even more difficulties because they don’t have [someone to speak up for them], or they don’t have our family support.”
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Carla Carmona
Carla Carmona is a research assistant with the Avanzando Caminos study. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in health science from Rice University in 2024.
As one of the study team’s newest additions, Carla devotes her time to discovering as much as she can about her patients. She enjoys being able to learn from them in ways she never could have imagined. She also shares a family connection to cancer.
“Getting to connect with all of the patients that we have here in San Antonio. I love connecting with people who are also fellow Latinos in my community, but also who relate to something that has affected my family personally. My mom is a cancer survivor, and I love seeing other cancer survivors who are out there living their lives and showing us their strength.”
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Helping Make a Difference in the Lives of South Texas Cancer Survivors
The Avanzando Caminos study is grounded in community — a community that is unevenly impacted by cancer.
“Cancer is one of the leading causes of death, so the goal of our study is to help our community of cancer survivors share their story because our Hispanic/Latino cancer survivors are the experts on cancer survivorship,” Ysabel said.
South Texas cancer survivors are an understudied and overlooked population. More research needs to be conducted to find out why cancer is affecting this community.
“By being able to share [survivor] stories we can hopefully provide better health outcomes, so that way, [our South Texas] cancer survivors can lead happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives,” according to Ysabel.
That’s the aim of the study and the reason the research assistants are standing by to hear these stories.
For Carla Carmona, it’s about shining a light on stories that have yet to be told.
“It allows our survivors who may have not gotten a chance to share what their true concerns, their worries, and their experiences were. We want to be able to give them a voice to make sure that the under-heard voices of … cancer survivors are brought to light,” she said.
For other research assistants, it’s about connecting with their heritage and helping make a difference by giving survivors who may encounter language difficulties a platform to share their stories.
“I understand that [hurdle] with having to speak a language that you might not be very familiar with,” Jacqueline Cardenas said. “Sometimes in the health care field, a lot of patients don’t feel that trust with their medical provider [because of that hurdle].”
Having a bilingual study team is integral to capturing the information needed to help make a difference in the lives of future generations of survivors.
Without them, they would never know what kind of interventions, which could be identifying different therapies or support groups, are needed to improve the survivor’s quality of life.
“A lot of our patients are not only doing it for themselves or for the study, but also to help other generations or future cancer survivors,” Jacqueline added.
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Collecting the Stories of Cancer Survivors
The research assistants for the Avanzando Caminos study are responsible for reaching out to potential participants, coordinating study visits, and conducting questionnaires.
These questionnaires are the foundational building blocks of the study that looks to examine factors that contribute to the variation of health outcomes in Hispanic/Latino cancer survivors in South Texas.
“[We’re] able to create a safe and open space for them to share their [cancer] stories and help them navigate through their experiences, and what the [cancer] survivorship experience when it comes to being a Latino is like,” Natalie Rodriguez said.
For the members of the team, it’s all about establishing a very close relationship over a long period of time.
“I always joke with my patients that we will become best friends over the next five years, and we truly mean that,” Ysabel Rose Vargas Lew said. “We all establish very close connections with our study participants, and we’re just so grateful that they’re willing to come and share their story with our study to help benefit future Hispanic and Latino cancer patients and cancer survivors.”
However, there’s a lot more that goes into the study process that meets the eye.
In addition to being the main point of contact with study participants, the study team also keeps an open line of communication with participants to help them better understand what happened to them and connect them to immediate resources should the need arise.
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Building Relationships with Study Participants
“They’re there to help,” participant Cynthia Lopez said of her study experience. “If I have any questions, I know I can pick up the phone and do it. They’re there. That means a lot.”
“A lot of questions that I learned from them, and they learn from me, how I feel,” colorectal cancer survivor and Caminos participant Alfred San Miguel said.
“Even though I can talk to my family about everything that happened, they don’t understand it like the [study team] because they are ready to help us and have the empathy to understand [what we went through],” Sandra Campos said.
“If you got cancer, you need help, or you want help, [UT Health San Antonio] is what it’s all about,” participant Solis T. said. “The information that is given to you. You don’t realize it. You may be a profession[al] in your profession, but the [study team] know what they’re talking about.”
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Join the Avanzando Caminos Study
The Avanzando Caminos study is looking for Hispanic/Latino survivors age 18 or older who have completed primary treatment for breast, colon, kidney, liver, lung, prostate, stomach or cervical cancer.
Volunteers will participate in seven study visits over five years, each with assessment interviews, and some with blood draws.
To volunteer for Avanzando Caminos or ask questions, contact a member of the study team at the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio at 210-562-6514 or caminos@uthscsa.edu.
Volunteers are eligible for $50 per visit!
Those who are interested in finding out more information about the study can visit the study’s website in (English) or (Spanish). There they will find a short online survey they can fill out and a member of the study team will be in touch with them soon!
By The Numbers
142
Percent
Expected rise in Latino cancer cases in coming years
This success story was produced by Salud America! with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The stories are intended for educational and informative purposes. References to specific policymakers, individuals, schools, policies, or companies have been included solely to advance these purposes and do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. Stories are based on and told by real community members and are the opinions and views of the individuals whose stories are told. Organization and activities described were not supported by Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and do not necessarily represent the views of Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
