With cancer consistently holding the second leading cause of deaths worldwide, UC Irvine is at the forefront in revolutionizing the future of cancer diagnosis, treatment, cures, and survivorship care. UCI Public Health faculty have stepped up to the call by conducting state-of-the-art research across the cancer spectrum in etiology, prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.
Through a rigorous review committee consisting of UCI Cancer Center leadership and a representative from our affiliated hospital, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, the Anti-Cancer Challenge has awarded funding to the following projects, which are being led by our faculty. These projects demonstrate exceptional potential for advancing standard cancer care and making significant contributions to cancer control efforts.
“Optimizing the Impact of Social Media to Reduce Unmet Needs for Young Adult Cancer Survivors”
Led by Principal Investigator, Anamara Ritt-Olson, PhD, associate professor in residence of health, society, & behavior and Co-Investigator, Joel Milam, PhD, professor of epidemiology & biostatistics, this project aims to reduce psychological impacts among young adult cancer survivors. Ritt-Olson and Milam will partner with cancer community members to moderate an Instagram account where survivors can share reviews about local resources with each other. Additional project aims will test ways to increase motivation to review resources, ways to engage with the account, and assess whether reviews help survivors engage with local resources.
“Translating Goal-Focused Emotion Regulation Therapy to Young Adults Across Cancer Diagnoses”
Led by Principal Investigator, Michael Hoyt, PhD, associate professor of population health & disease prevention and Co-Investigator, Baolin Wu, PhD, professor of epidemiology & biostatistics, this project, in partnership with the Children’s Hospital Orange County, will test an intervention aimed to enhance self-regulation through improved goal navigation skills, improved sense of meaning and purpose, and better ability to regulate specific emotional responses with young adults across cancer diagnoses.
“Interventions to Improve Lung Cancer Screening”
Michael Hoyt, PhD, associate professor of population health & disease prevention, serves as Co-Investigator in pushing novel interventions forward to reduce lung cancer death in the U.S. through early screening. Researchers will assess perceptions and barriers towards lung cancer screening among a diverse racial/ethnic population – some of whom receive care in community health centers – and their providers.
“New Machine Learning Methods to Identify Metabolomic and Genomic Biomarkers for Colorectal Cancer”
Led by Principal Investigator, Min Zhang, MD, PhD, professor of epidemiology & biostatistics, this project is a multi-principal investigator/team science award and has received $60,000 in pilot funding. The project will build upon the research team’s successful identification of blood metabolomic biomarkers for colorectal polyps and the estimated genetic predisposition to colorectal cancer. Using the newly developed machine learning methods, the research team will strive to identify biomarkers that will facilitate the early detection of colorectal cancer and improve disease risk prediction.
The 2023 UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge invites the community to participate in the seventh annual event on Saturday, Oct. 7 at UCI Aldrich Park. Whether participating as an individual, forming a team, or contributing as a donor, 100% of the funds raised directly support transformative projects like the ones awarded to our public health researchers.
