7 Ways Sylvester Reduces Cancer Burden in South Florida Communities
The cancer center’s outreach programs use educational initiatives and cancer screenings to help at-risk communities.
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, serves one of the nation’s most diverse, multicultural and multiracial catchment areas.
Navigating diverse cultures, languages, environments and social patterns has become a science for Sylvester. Its successful approach involves old-fashioned community engagement combined with high-tech data to help reduce the cancer burden in a thoughtful, systematic way.
Here are seven ways Sylvester works in South Florida communities:
1. SCAN 360
The SCAN 360 website merges Sylvester’s research and Florida Health Department data to reveal cancer patterns in the local community and throughout the state. Sylvester uses publicly accessible information to discern cancer “hot spots” with accelerating cancer rates.
SCAN 360 allows researchers to visualize cancer incidence, mortality rates, late-stage diagnoses and years of life lost. It also informs Sylvester’s outreach by mapping factors that impact overall health and patient outcomes, like sociodemographics, cancer histology and staging, screening, health insurance access and residential segregation.
2. Community Advisory Committee
Sylvester invites stakeholders and leaders to discuss community needs as part of its Community Advisory Committee (CAC).
Sylvester uses SCAN 360 data and CAC feedback to create a roadmap for community intervention programs to ensure every patient receives appropriate treatment and compassionate support before, during and after a cancer diagnosis.
3. Game Changers
Launched in 2018, Sylvester’s Game Changer mobile cancer screening vehicles provide education, prevention and research opportunities to underserved communities. From June 2023 through May 2024, the Game Changers screened 1,468 people for cancer at more than 220 events in South Florida.
“What’s unique about Sylvester’s Game Changer program is it was conceptualized collaboratively with community partners. We’re constantly evolving it to be responsive to community partners’ perspectives, as well as the shifting landscape of cancer risk and outcomes that we derive from data,” said Erin Kobetz, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate director, community outreach and engagement at Sylvester and the John K. and Judy H. Schulte Senior Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.
Community needs determine the roads the Game Changers travel. For instance, men of African and Hispanic descent are prone to aggressive, early-onset prostate cancer. So, the Game Changers added prostate screening to their services.
The Game Changer fleet is growing to meet increasing demand, as well, with “sprinter” mobile clinics that cover more ground.
4. Lung Cancer Screening
Florida’s screening rate for lung cancer—the leading cause of cancer death—is 2.4%, below the already low national average of 4.5%. SCAN 360 revealed that lung cancer remains prevalent in the areas Sylvester serves.
Estelamari Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., clinical research lead of the Thoracic Site Disease Group and associate director for community outreach at Sylvester, created Spanish-language educational content and works with patient advocacy and oncology specialty groups in an attempt to warn the community about the dangers of lung cancer.
Additionally, Game Changer vehicles now assess lung cancer screening eligibility to identify people who need low-dose CT screening scans. Many of the people at greatest risk for lung cancer lack insurance coverage for scans, so Sylvester is working to increase the grant funding it deploys to defray screening costs for eligible patients in Miami-Dade County.
5. Spreading the Word About Genetic Risk
Genetic cancer risk often defies ethnicity and race, and Sylvester emphasizes the importance of genetic screening to identify silent cancer risks.
“We believe it’s our responsibility to care for the patients beyond our institution by raising awareness of the importance of assessing for genetic risk and the benefits of appropriate surveillance and preventive measures,” said Nicholas A. Borja, M.D., Sylvester researcher and assistant professor of clinical and translational genetics at the Miller School.
Dr. Borja and colleagues organized the Miami Precision Medicine Conference to educate local providers about referral criteria for genetic testing. Patient advocacy groups like FORCE and educational video and text publications, including the Sylvester UHealth Talk on Cancer Prevention, bear a significant Sylvester imprint.
6. Local Lifestyle Matters
Tracy E. Crane, Ph.D., RDN, co-lead of the Cancer Control Program and director of lifestyle medicine, prevention and digital health at Sylvester, shares a guiding mantra during her talks to providers, patients and community members: “Upwards of 40% of all cancers could be averted if people ate healthier, moved their bodies more and were at a healthy body weight, all factors we have control over.”
Sylvester’s Cancer Control Program advances lifestyle medicine and cancer prevention science with research that informs outreach programs for diverse South Florida communities.
“Lifestyle medicine is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Precision community engagement has to be tailored to people’s cultures, upbringings, beliefs, environments and much more,” Dr. Crane said.
7. Accessible, Relatable Resources
Sylvester experts and patients share knowledge and real-life experiences in online resources like UMiami Health Talks and UHealth Collective.
“Like spokes on a wheel, Sylvester’s community engagement initiatives strengthen and empower people in South Florida communities to understand their cancer risk and what they can personally do to diminish that risk,” Dr. Kobetz said.
Tags: Cancer Control Program, cancer genetics, community advisory committee, Dr. Nicholas Borja, Dr. Tracy Crane, Game Changer, lung cancer, Miami Precision Medicine Conference, SCAN 360, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center