COVID-19 and Its Implications for Cancer Prevention and Control: A Collaborative Effort Across Cancer Centers

The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to trigger major behavior changes worldwide,which, consequently, may have significant implications for cancer prevention, management, and survivorshipefforts, particularly among sub-populations experiencing cancer disparities. Thus, it is imperative to beprepared and adapt our ongoing and future strategies across the cancer care continuum within this newcontext through participatory evidence-based approaches. Given the urgency, and how rapidly these changesare occurring, we must take advantage of ongoing collaborative efforts to maximize resources and accelerateimplementation of these new strategies based on the needs and wants of different sub-populations in the U.S.The overall goal of this collaborative with four other cancer centers (Iowa, Detroit, Colorado, and Ohio) is towork together to rapidly develop a standard set of core questions to incorporate into surveys that can beadministered to populations across the U.S. using protocols that can be delivered by cancer center/universitystaff working remotely (e.g., online and telephone). Although five cancer centers are moving forward with thesupplement, other cancer centers are willing to join our efforts so we have begun a coordinated effort toengage them in the process in the event additional resources become available. The specific aims are:1. To assess how differences in demographics (rural/urban, age, gender, race, educational attainment) willimpact engagement in cancer preventive behaviors (e.g., tobacco cessation) and cancermanagement/survivorship behaviors (e.g., adherence to treatment, adherence to surveillance) in thecontext of COVID-19 environmental constraints (e.g., social distancing, employment, mental health, etc.)among adult healthy volunteers, cancer patients, and cancer survivors in Alabama (field center);2. To provide coordination of efforts and technical assistance regarding data management and analysis to allparticipating cancer centers (coordinating center);3. To strengthen the collaboration with the participating cancer centers toward the development andimplementation of cancer prevention & control strategies in the context of COVID-19 (coordinating center)