Colorado School of Public Health News and Stories

The Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) has published a supplemental issue of Cancer Causes and Control to mark the Network’s 20th anniversary. As one of the Network Centers since 2019, the Colorado-based CPCRN site in the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center (RMPRC) at the Colorado School of Public Health played an integral part of in the writing and release of this supplement.

Colorado School of Public Health | December 12, 2023

The American Cancer Society, the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the United States, has approved funding for 42 research grants nationwide totaling $33.8M, including one grant in Denver. Grant applications undergo a rigorous, independent, and highly competitive peer review process. The newly approved grants will fund investigators at 33 institutions across the United States, including the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Grant-funded projects will begin on July 1, 2021.

Colorado School of Public Health | June 25, 2021

The Colorado School of Public Health is one of four new Collaborating Centers to join the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (CPCRN) in Cycle 5 of the Network, spanning from 2019-2024. Led by Betsy Risendal, PhD, and Project Director, Emily Bilenduke, BA, the Colorado School of Public Health is presently comprised of nine investigators participating in seven CPCRN projects, in addition to center-specific involvement in local core projects dedicated to understanding and advancing risk-based cancer prevention and control strategies. 

Dr. Risendal, Associate Professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health, is the lead investigator on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Research Center (PRC) Special Interest Project (SIP), titled, "Cancer RESULTS (Resources, Engagement, and Support for the Use of Lifetime Tailored cancer prevention Services)." Dr. Risendal's SIP is one of the seven CPCRN projects. 

Read the full interview on CPCRN. 

Colorado School of Public Health | September 28, 2020

July 1, 2020 marked the start of another year of funding for the Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP) for Patient Navigation but just like most things in 2020…it’s not just another year for the decade long program. 

CCSP is a Program of the University of Colorado Cancer Center with faculty and staff leadership from the Colorado School of Public Health. CCSP supports the safety net clinics in Colorado to increase colorectal cancer screening and also expanded to lung cancer and hereditary cancer screening.   

Keeping the funding for cancer prevention and control in Colorado was was harder this year amidst a pandemic. CCSP is funded through the Cancer Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Grants Disease Program (CCPD). In the 2019/2020 legislative session, as a state of fiscal emergency was declared, the program budget could have been dramatically reduced or completed defunded. For several years, CCSP has had to educate the public and legislature on the importance of cancer screening and advocate for funding as the CCPD funding source expanded to a broader portfolio of diseases or focus areas than when the grants program was established. 

Andrea Dwyer | August 21, 2020

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. While survival rates of lung cancer are low for all patients, rates are lower for Black patients, with a 15% five-year all-stages survival rate, compared to 18% for non-Hispanic whites. At diagnosis, Black and Hispanic patients are more often at an advanced stage compared to non-Hispanic whites. Research has shown that factors such as early detection, smoking, biology, environmental and societal factors contribute to these disparities.

Michelle Kuba | March 05, 2020

After graduation, Reese Garcia, MPH ’17, hadn’t quite found her dream job yet, so she decided to get some help from the ColoradoSPH career services center. On her way in on the fateful day, she ran into a former boss, Andi Dwyer of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Dwyer says she had seen a quiet leadership in Garcia as a graduate student, one that was highly effective at engaging people. That leadership led her to suggest that Garcia apply for a recent job opening at Fight Colorectal Cancer, a national advocacy and research organization Dwyer works closely with in her role as director of the Colorado Cancer Screening Program. 

Tori Forsheim | October 30, 2019

According to a study led by Community and Behavioral Health alum Nicole Harty, MPH '16, and including Professor Sheana Bull and Senior Research Assistant Andrea Dwyer who is also director of the Colorado Cancer Screening Program, advertisements on popular social media sites can instigate people getting tested for cancer sooner. 

Colorado School of Public Health | January 07, 2019

The Colorado School of Public Health has been named a recipient of a  $1.9 million grant to address mental health disparities in low-income, uninsured and under-insured Coloradans who are suffering from lung, head and neck cancers. The grant is part of $152.8 million in grants that were recently allocated by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors to support studies covering a range of conditions and problems that impose high burdens on patients, caregivers, and the healthcare system.

Colorado School of Public Health | December 05, 2016