New Project to Offer Cancer Screening to Underserved Latinos in San Antonio



Two University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio researchers today were awarded a total of $4.7 million by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). These awards for cancer prevention, along with $2.9 million to University Health System, make San Antonio the largest recipient of funds in this CPRIT funding cycle—28% the $26.3 million awarded. Dr. Cynthia Mojica, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the UT Health Science Center, will use a $2 million award to partner with federally qualified health center CentroMed and community organizations to offer breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening to San Antonio residents otherwise unable to afford them. “This grant allows us to ...

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VIDEOS: Training on Patient Navigation & Latino Cancer Issues



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 ...

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Èxito! Grad Testimonial: Maria Priscilla Brietzke



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 ...

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Latinos’ Liver Cancer Rates Are on Rise



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 ...

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Èxito! Grad Testimonial: Marina Daldalian



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 ...

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Èxito! Grad Testimonial: Christina Munoz-Masso



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 ...

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Èxito! Grad Testimonial: Donaji Stelzig



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 ...

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News: Latino Health Research, Stories & More



Find the latest in Latino health—from fighting Latina breast cancer to helping Latinos pursue doctoral degrees—in the new E-newsletter from the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at The UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The E-newsletter has these stories: Story and Video: Giving Latinas a Chance vs. Breast Cancer (Pg 1) Story: How a Typewriter Helped a Latina Launch a Career in Health Promotion (Pg 2) Story and Video: Depression after Cancer Keeps Latinas from Follow-Up Care (Pg 3) Story: Apply by 3/1/12 for Éxito Program to Get Help Pursuing a Doctoral Degree (Pg 5) Story: San Antonio Schools Get Salad Bars (Pg 6) Story and Video: Latino Man Works to Interrupt Street Violence (Pg 8 ) The E-newsletter is jam-packed ...

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IHPR Researcher Promotes Cancer Education in South Texas



In the late 1980s, Dora Alicia Gonzalez helped do one of the first assessments of socioeconomics and health care locations in her native Brownsville, Texas. She even helped write a 300-page report—page by page—on a typewriter. Gonzalez said the experience, even despite its arduous typing task, sparked her interest in public health and improving the lives of the underserved. Over the last 20 years she has helped meet the needs of uninsured residents as part of a primary health care agency, and also fostered community-based partnerships and developed and implemented cancer education training sessions along the Texas-Mexico border for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Today, Gonzalez builds community health as a program coordinator at the Institute for Health Promotion Research ...

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