Life-Saving Information on Cancer Delivered in More Effective Manner Through New MU Program

Columbia, Mo. (July 21, 2003) -- Every day, researchers throughout the world strive to find a cure for cancer. Although no cure exists, scientists find new ways to prevent and treat this disease. Experts think this life-saving information is not reaching the minority population in a quick and effective manner. The University of Missouri-Columbia will attempt to solve this problem through the new Center of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research (CECCR).

"Communicating how to prevent cancer, receive proper treatment and manage end-of-life issues is the primary goals of the cancer communications research group," said Glen Cameron, Gregory Chair in Journalism Research in MU's advertising department and leader of the initiative. "For the nation to have accurate and appropriate information about cancer, research and programming are needed to sharpen and evaluate the effectiveness of health communication."

The CECCR, a joint program of the Missouri School of Journalism and St. Louis University, will create a news information bureau that will provide locally relevant and race-specific cancer news stories to minority newspapers in predominately minority markets. Follow-up surveys will be conducted to determine if the increased coverage affected the cancer knowledge and health behaviors in the targeted communities.

In addition to the CECCR project, MU is developing a Cancer Communication Research Center, a one-of-a-kind communication and prevention program that combines the School of Journalism's work in mass communication with prevention and intervention research at the School of Nursing, the School of Medicine, the College of Education and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Some of the projects will include:

• Surveying African American women's responses to fear and empowerment messages about breast-cancer screening.
• Development and evaluation in military-base communities of a tobacco prevention campaign developed by the Journalism School.
• Development and evaluation of a CD-ROM/Web tool for enhanced treatment and communication with child cancer patients.
• Providing oncology nurses with a kit for strategically delivering information about nutrition to cancer patients (Project is underway and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.)
• Assessing the degree of public understanding and acceptance of plant-based biopharmaceuticals (Project underway and funded by Monsanto Protein Technologies)