Patient-provider communication about healthy lifestyle behaviors facilitated by a smartphone app

1.0 Abstract: Overall Our strategy at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) is to take advantage of discoveries in basic cancer biology, in conjunction with clinical, population, and prevention research, to (a) develop and apply innovative therapeutic and preventive strategies to cancer patients, (b) describe the molecular mechanisms involving specific clinical phenotypes and behaviors, (c) apply discoveries and strategies to the Maryland community with a specific focus on cancer disparities, and (d) provide training in cancer biology and cancer care for students, fellows, clinicians, and staff. These strategies collectively will serve the clinical and research missions of the Cancer Center for the Maryland community well into the future. In this application, UMGCCC seeks the second competitive renewal of the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG), which was first awarded to UMGCCC in August 2008; “Comprehensive” designation was awarded in 2016. For this application, UMGCCC is represented by 137 full and 88 associate members working in 5 research programs, unchanged since our 2015 application. The application describes seven shared services. UMGCCC provides an effective structure to support the multidisciplinary cancer research activities of this talented group of investigators. Total direct cancer funding is $79.1 million, with $14.2 million from the National Cancer Institute. Direct cancer funding has increased 70 percent in the last cycle. In 2019, UMGCCC served 3,095 new cancer patients. In the last funding cycle, a total of 9,702 patients participated in clinical trials. Fifty-six percent of all participants in clinical trials were minorities, reflecting UMGCCC's unique position and mission to involve the minority community in state-of-the-art clinical and translational research. This includes 48.2 percent underrepresented minorities as well as 7.8 percent Asians, the latter reflecting clinical trials examining health disparities in that group. Underrepresented minority accrual to therapeutic trials is 34.7 percent. UMGCCC continues to make outstanding contributions to understanding cancer biology, and important recent work from UMGCCC labs and clinics is now the standard of care or in advanced clinical trials. The U.S. News & World Report ranking of U.S. cancer programs has named UMGCCC in the top 50 for 13 consecutive years. Reflecting remarkable and continued progress, UMGCCC seeks to renew its CCSG to enhance and expand its efforts and support high-quality and clinically relevant cancer research.