The Center for Immunization Research and Education at NDSU has received a $25,000 grant from the Prevent Cancer Foundation to make a difference in cancer education.
The center at NDSU will use the funding to assist more than 200 health care providers in North Dakota with parent and patient education during medical visits. Education will focus on preventing cancers caused by the human papillomavirus, including the role that HPV vaccination plays in preventing certain types of cancer.
Center staff and HPV vaccination experts will canvass the state to provide peer-to-peer education to pediatric and family medicine health care providers on ways to reinforce the importance of vaccinations against HPV, which can lead to a variety of cancers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 38,793 new cases of cancer are found in parts of the body where HPV is often found and the CDC website notes that HPV causes about 30,700 of these cancers. Medical recommendations include HPV vaccines for preteen girls and boys to protect against HPV infection, as well as teens.
“Effectively communicating about the role immunizations can play in preventing certain types of cancer is crucial,” said Dr. Paul Carson, professor of practice in the Department of Public Health in the College of Health Professions at NDSU. “This grant award will help provide educational options and informational approaches to health care providers caring for patients and their families.”
Located in the NDSU Department of Public Health, the Center for Immunization Research and Education addresses trends in vaccine coverage and focuses on improvement of immunization rates in the region with the goal of having no one in its region suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The Prevent Cancer Foundation awarded community grants to nine underserved communities for cancer prevention and early detection projects. Organizations in 48 states expressed interest in this highly competitive grant cycle.
According to its website, the Prevent Cancer Foundation supports research grants and fellowships for cancer prevention and early detection and community grants for cancer screening or education projects on the local level. The application process is competitive, and proposals are assessed through an external peer review. The non-profit group, founded in 1985, has invested $142 million in support of cancer prevention.
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