Childhood Obesity Data Now Available Online
[The Catalogue of Surveillance Systems (http://nccor.org/css) and the Measures Registry (http://nccor.org/measures) highlight data relevant to childhood obesity.]
Two new Internet resources aim to make it less difficult and cumbersome to do exhaustive research on childhood obesity.
The Catalogue of Surveillance Systems (http://nccor.org/css) and the Measures Registry (http://nccor.org/measures) highlight data relevant to childhood obesity, such as nutritional information about the typical American child's eating patterns, and standardized and scientifically validated instruments, such as questionnaires and diaries, for assessing children's nutrition, diet, and exercise. The sites include 79 surveillance systems, such as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and 733 research tools.
The Catalogue of Surveillance Systems, which debuted in March, includes a range of data obtained through national, state, and local surveillance systems, such as the NHANES and the American Time Use Survey, a national survey of how Americans use their time throughout the day, including the time they spend doing physical activity. The site also includes data that provides insight into the sociological influences on obesity, such as crime statistics.
“You might not immediately see the relevance of crime to childhood obesity, but if you are researching physical activity within a community, crime is a relevant thing to consider,” says Jill Reedy, PhD, program director and nutritionist at the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences.
The Measures Registry, which debuted in April, includes tools to assess individual diet and physical activity; the environments that influence nutrition and exercise, such as family, school, and community; and public policy on health issues related to childhood obesity. The measures were accumulated by a review of existing published scientific literature. The registry also includes some measures that have been used by clinical practitioners or researchers, but have not yet been published. According to Dr. Reedy, researchers who want to submit measures they have designed can do so through a feedback form on the Measures Registry Web site, http://nccor.org/measures.html.
Dr. Reedy and colleagues are hoping that they will get feedback from researchers that will help them ascertain where research gaps on childhood obesity exist, what kind of data may need to be collected in the future, and how measures may be improved.
“The ultimate goal is to facilitate access to data resources to make scientific research easier and more innovative, and to really target and reduce the rates of childhood obesity,” she says.
ASCO Award to Be Used for Study Linking Genetics to Routine Clinical Care
[Mark Ratain, MD, speaking during the ASCO annual meeting on June 4.]
At its annual meeting in June, the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) Conquer Cancer Foundation awarded its Translational Research Professorship to a researcher who is heading a study that will use broad genetic information in routine clinical care of outpatients.
The recipient of the award, Mark Ratain, MD, will use the $300,000 ASCO award to advance the 5‐year University of Chicago study, which is currently recruiting up to 1,200 subjects. Dr. Ratain, the Leon O. Jacobson Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, explains that participating adult outpatients will have their DNA tested for genetic differences that suggest risk for side effects or increased benefit from medications prescribed for a variety of medical conditions, including cardiac conditions, systemic autoimmune disease, and hepatitis C.
“The $300,000 in discretionary funds from ASCO will further advance our efforts in the discovery and clinical implementation of germline predictive biomarkers of both toxicity and efficacy (of medications),” Dr. Ratain says. “This work includes but is not focused on cancer patients.”
Dr. Ratain says he hopes the study will serve as a model for clinicians in providing personalized medical care so that genetic information for each patient may one day be woven into each medical visit and clinical treatment decision.
The ASCO Translational Research Professorship is awarded to researchers who bring advances in basic science into the clinical arena and who have helped to train other translational researchers. For more information, visit http://conquercancerfoundation.org.
Cancer Panel's Report Calls for Improved Research Among Minorities
It's expected that racial minorities will form the majority of the population in the United States by 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, so a new report by the President's Cancer Panel couldn't be more timely. The report includes recommendations on how to expand research into the factors that influence cancer risk and outcomes in racial and ethnic groups. But to truly have an impact, the recommendations need to be coupled with improved access to healthcare for minorities, says one researcher familiar with cancer‐related research issues among diverse populations.
Released in April, the panel's report, America's Demographic and Cultural Transformation: Implications for Cancer, calls for research that takes into account genetics, socioeconomic background, and environmental risk factors for cancer, and recommends improved data collection on incidence and mortality among diverse populations. The panel also recommends more cultural competency among oncology clinicians and recruitment of increased numbers of scientists and health professionals from minority populations.
[The report recommends improved data collection on cancer incidence and mortality among diverse populations.]
“The report beautifully identifies the major issues concerning cancer among racial and ethnic populations today, and what will be the most pressing issues later on in this century,” says Beverly Moy, MD, clinical director of the breast oncology program at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Moy, who was not a member of the President's Cancer Panel, chairs the Health Disparities Advisories Group of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Moy says the strengths of the report include the comprehensiveness of its recommendations, from the need for more accurately researched data on minority populations, such as the genetic, sociologic, and environmental factors that influence poor clinical outcomes, to the lack of diversity among the oncology workforce. “But anyone who's interested in cancer disparities has to realize that access to quality healthcare is the number one priority for improving cancer prevention and treatment among minorities. Access to care wasn't talked about in a huge way in the report, but that wasn't its purpose. Its purpose was to identify the problems and the most pressing research imperatives going forward,” she says.
The lack of diversity in the oncology workforce is also a major issue because oncology providers and researchers from minority populations are more likely to be culturally competent and to seek out positions where they can provide healthcare to disadvantaged minority populations, according to Dr. Moy. And that's important because minority populations not only lack the money and health insurance necessary for accessing healthcare, but also live in poor urban or rural neighborhoods where health professionals are in sparse supply, she adds.
“Often, doctors who come from disadvantaged minorities return to their communities to care for minority patients, and we need that kind of high level commitment,” Dr. Moy says.
NHGRI Seeks to Fund New Genomic‐Based Research Studies in Africa
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health, will soon be funding a new effort to establish genomicsbased research laboratories in Africa as well as studies that seek to shed light on diseases and conditions that affect Africans.
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3 Africa) Initiative is jointly sponsored by the African Society of Human Genetics, the NIH, and the Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom. Plans include establishing biorepositories for large‐scale sample collection and storage and a technological infrastructure, including centers of excellence linked by computer network, for genetic and genomic data generation, analysis, and collaboration. The most immediate goals for H3Africa, however, are to work on improving current genomics programs in Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, and the Republic of South Africa. The program, for example, will include training in genetic epidemiology, bioinformatics, and statistical analysis. It will also develop guidelines to regulate and provide an ethical framework for genomics research in Africa.
The projects will be given enough funding to establish a laboratory that carries on all the different aspects of an intricate genomics research project.
—Jane Peterson, PhD
The African research grants, called Cooperative Agreements, will be distributed by the fall of 2012, but the specific amount of each award as well as the time span for each grant has yet to be determined, says Jane Peterson, PhD, NHGRI's associate director of the Division of Extramural Research. Dr. Peterson could not comment on specific criteria for awarding funding until the request for application for the genomic‐based African research grants is announced in the fall. Grants will be distributed to studies on infectious and noninfectious diseases common in Africa as well as conditions such as malnutrition, she says.
“The research projects through these (H3 Africa) Cooperative Agreements will be given enough funding to establish a laboratory that carries on all the different aspects of an intricate genomics research project,” Dr. Peterson says. “They have to perform genomic analysis and pull it all together so that we gain insight into the biology of an organism or a disease,” she adds.
Although 50% of the research funds must stay in Africa, it's possible that U.S.‐ or European‐based researchers with ties to Africa could participate in the research, Dr. Peterson says.
For more information about the H3 Africa initiative, visit the website http://h3Africa.org.