Cancer

The Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute was founded in 1950 as a cancer treatment center. It has gradually expanded its activities in basic and clinical cancer research. The Office of Global Health Initiatives partners with Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in a cervical cancer screening project in Northeast India. Findings have demonstrated how to improve the effectiveness of screening using combinations of the VIA (visualization) and Hybrid Capture (detecting presence of human papilloma virus DNA) approaches. This partnership has also produced a new project involving oral cancer screening, or 30% of all cancers in India, using the new technology of autofluorescence.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center was America's first cancer center founded in 1898 by Roswell Park, MD. It is among the first and only upstate New York facility to hold the designation of "comprehensive cancer center" and serves as a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network. It is one of the nation's first hospital facilities dedicated to Phase I cancer research studies, and sets itself apart in surgical robotics, vitamin D research, immunotherapy and vaccine therapy, tumor microenvironment and cancer prevention, and the development of new agents and technology. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center partners with the Office of Global Health Initiatives and Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute on projects screening for cervical cancer in Northeast India using visualization and hybrid capture approaches and oral cancer screening using autofluorescence.

In conjunction with researchers at the University of Puerto Rico, Jo Freudenheim, PhD, is conducting a case control study of breast cancer in Puerto Rico. They are examining factors that can explain the increase in breast cancer incidence there. In particular, they are studying diet, diet in adolescence, physical activity, sun exposure and other early life exposures.