Community Outreach and Engagement

The Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI) is a national and international leader in cancer research across the cancer control continuum, with a strong commitment to serving the more than 7.8 million people residing in our 10- county catchment area in the San Francisco Bay Area through cutting-edge patient-centered cancer care, innovative research, cancer-focused community outreach and engagement, and impactful policy advocacy (e.g., melanoma prevention, tobacco prevention). Our catchment area, where 79% of our patients reside, includes 10 geographically adjacent and highly various counties. Community partners, Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) staff, and SCI leadership defined our high priority cancers for research and control over the short term (breast, lung, liver, pancreas, and lymphoma) and long term (prostate, colon, and melanoma), as well as priority targets for cancer prevention, including obesity and tobacco control. Significant accomplishments over the last 3 years include reaching more than 13,000 community members through education and outreach activities, facilitating innovative research projects in direct response to community needs, and providing customized solutions to enhance clinical trials recruitment and retention. To address unmet needs in our catchment area related to access to cancer care services and clinical trials, the SCI has committed $1 million per year for the next five years to establish a new SCI Office of Community Outreach and Engagement. Working collaboratively with our Community Advisory Board, 70 community partners, SCI leadership, Stanford Health Care, Stanford Children’s Health, and leaders in COE across Stanford University, the office seeks to improve the impact of COE on the cancer burden in our catchment area. This will be accomplished through four main aims: 1) Understand and monitor the cancer burden, cancer risk factors, and community assets in the catchment area on an ongoing basis; 2) Develop and sustain bidirectional partnerships to facilitate research and activities that are relevant to the catchment area; 3) Increase participation of patients in SCI clinical trials; and 4) Translate research into practices and policies that decrease the overall cancer burden. The short and long-term impact of the proposed activities will be evaluated using theoretically and empirically supported frameworks in close collaboration with community partners and SCI leadership.