San Antonio Researcher, YMCA Partner to Encourage Healthy Living, Cancer Prevention



The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recently awarded $265,000 to a researcher from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio who is working with the YMCA of Greater San Antonio to encourage healthy living and cancer prevention. Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, professor in the Health Science Center’s Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR), is co-directing “Y Living,” a lifestyle program for cancer prevention and risk reduction. “This collaborative project uses a community-based, family-focused approach. We’ll work with families to promote physical activity, a balanced diet and increased awareness of the impact of a healthy lifestyle on cancer risk reduction,” Dr. Parra-Medina said. “We’ll provide health education, ...

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Lecture on 8/11/11: “What Every Latino Man & Woman Should Know About Cancer”



Hispanics, who make up 60 percent of Bexar County’s population and almost 40 percent of Texas’, face special cancer risks. Minimizing those risks is the subject of a free public lecture to be held at 6 p.m. CST Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011, on the fourth floor of the Grossman Building at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7979 Wurzbach Road. "In the Hispanic population, we tend to put off prevention because we don't think it's going to happen to us," said Dr. Amelie Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center. "And cancer's one of those things we don't like to talk about." For instance, Dr. Ramirez said, about 40 percent of Hispanic women do not have yearly ...

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Apply for ‘Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training’



Are you a Latino master's student or master's-level professional in Texas? You are invited to apply by Feb. 18, 2011, for Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training, a new training program to encourage Latino master’s students and master’s professionals to pursue a doctoral degree in a Latino health disparity research field and/or cancer control research career. Éxito! is led by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. Éxito! consists of: A 5-day Summer Institute in June 2011 that offers teaching, tools and resources Paid Internships (Starting in 2012) Doctoral Application Support Awards (Starting in 2012) Doctoral Biannual Retreats (Starting in 2014) "We believe that Éxito! can increase ethnic diversity in the ...

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Join Redes En Acción & Help Fight Latino Cancer



You're invited to join Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network and become part of a nationwide effort to fight cancer among Latinos. Redes, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of SaludToday and the Institute of Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, has spent 10 years reducing Latino cancer. Redes has generated more than $200 million in funding for cancer research, trained more than 200 students and health professionals and conducted more than 2,000 community education events and developed bilingual educational materials and PSAs. Watch a stirring video here or below about the program’s achievements among Latinos. Then join us! Also, watch the program’s six new PSAs ...

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Latino Cancer a Major Health Challenge



New study findings show an increased risk for cancer among Latino populations, but unique demographic characteristics suggest the problem may be worse than currently known. "As we see the Latino population age, we are going to see the current disparity in knowledge and outcomes become an explosion," said Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. Ramirez received the fifth annual AACR-Minorities in Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Lectureship at the 101st AACR Annual Meeting 2010 and delivered a lecture, "Networks in Acción for Latino Cancer Research," on April 18. Currently, the rate of breast cancer among Latinas is lower than that in the general ...

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Redes En Acción: Making a Difference Against Latino Cancer



Redes En Acción: The National Latino Cancer Research Network, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and directed by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez of SaludToday and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is celebrating 10 years of work to reduce Latino cancer. Redes has generated more than $200 million in funding for cancer research, trained more than 200 students and health professionals and conducted more than 2,000 community education events, bilingual materials and more. Watch a stirring video here or below about the program’s achievements among Latinos. Then join us! Also, watch the program’s six new PSAs touting Latino cancer prevention in English or Spanish here. To request broadcast-quality formats of the PSAs, email us ...

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Study: Moving to U.S. Increases Hispanics’ Cancer Risk



A recent study confirm trends that different Hispanic subpopulations have higher incidence rates of certain cancers and worse cancer outcomes if they live in the U.S., than they do if they live in their homelands. “Hispanics are not all the same in their cancer experience,” said the study’s lead researcher Dr. Paulo S. Pinheiro of the University of Miami School of Medicine. “Targeted interventions for cancer prevention and control should take into account the specificity of each Hispanic subgroup: Cubans, Puerto Ricans or Mexicans.” The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, indicated that different Hispanic population groups showed different patterns of cancer. Mexicans had the lowest rates of cancer overall; Puerto Ricans had the highest ...

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