At Ellis Fischel Cancer Center (EFCC), our specialists have the resources and training to not just treat cancer, but to prevent it from ever occurring.
Since its dedication in 1940 as the first cancer center west of the Mississippi River, Ellis Fischel has served all Missourians as a statewide center of cancer care, which encompasses treatment, research and more. The research efforts of the Prevention and Control Program (PCP) provide an opportunity to reduce the cancer burden, eliminate cancer care disparities, enhance early detection and increase long-term survival in EFCC patients across the state.
Led by research director Mark McIntosh, PhD, the clinical, biomedical and population scientists in the PCP are committed to transdisciplinary and translational research targeted at reducing the cancer burden from early detection to survivorship.
Increasing the investment in population and interventional clinicians and scientists is vital to building an infrastructure that reduces unnecessary delays in evidence-based cancer care across the many statewide patient settings.
For EFCC patients, the PCP will focus on:
- Tobacco control and cessation programs — Because of low cigarette prices, low tobacco tax rates and the high tobacco usage, as well as the high incidence of lung cancer in the EFCC catchment area, our investigators are actively applying population and addiction expertise to reduce the burden of tobacco use.
- Early screening and detection efforts — We continue to focus on the importance of educating the public about screening and early detection through telehealth educational and training resources focused on the top five statewide cancers (colorectal, breast, prostate, melanoma and lung).
- Reducing health care disparities in cancer screening — We are dedicated to decreasing the disparities in detection and survival based upon racial/ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic differences.
