Partnerships and Outreach
University of Guam – Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i Partnership
Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, MD, PhD, and Helen Whippy, PhD, Principal Investigators

Americans of Pacific Islander ancestry are a highly underserved minority with a significant burdenof cancer health disparities. Americans ofPacific Islander ancestry are also highly underrepresented among cancer researchers and cancer health care professionals. The University of Guam (UOG), a four year land grant institution in the U.S. Territory of Guam in the Western Pacific, and the Cancer Research Center of Hawai‘i (CRCH), an NCI-designated cancer center at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, have been engaged in a unique and successful partnership over the past six years, currently supported by a U-56 grant through the Minority Institution/Cancer Center Partnership program of the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities at the National Cancer Institute.

As the only partnership addressing cancer health disparities in Pacific Islanders, the UOG/CRCH partnership is characterized by a significant number of very unique aspects and opportunities. Both Hawai‘i and Guam have two distinct multi-ethnic populations that are very different from any other part of the country. In particular, more than one-third of the population of Guam is represented by Chamorros/part-Chamorros as well as a sizable community of other Micronesians. The unique ethnic characteristics of this UOG/CRCH partnership are paralleled by its unique geographic characteristics (the geographic region covered by Hawai‘i, Guam, and the other U.S.-associated Pacific territories is larger than the U.S. mainland), as well as unique regional opportunities for research, education, and outreach. The U-56-supported UOG/CRCH partnership has indeed been transformational for the University of Guam and the Territory of Guam. A Cancer Research Center of Guam has been established on the campus of UOG, an increasing number of faculty and students are engaged in cancer research at UOG, and an increasing number of faculty from CRCH are addressing issues of particular relevance for cancer health disparities in the Hawai‘i/Pacific region. Both institutions are seeking continued funding from the NCI via a comprehensive partnership grant (U-54) which is intended to build on these remarkable achievements, and to help sustain the unique partnership between UOG and CRCH with the following aims: a) to increase the cancer research activities and the number of faculty engaged in cancer research at UOG, b) to increase the number of minority scientists of Pacific Islander ancestry engaged in cancer research, and providing pertinent undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate education and training opportunities for Pacific Islander students, c) to further strengthen the research focus at CRCH on cancer health disparities with particular emphasis on aspects of particular relevance for the people of Hawai‘i and the Pacific, and d) to enhance the awareness of cancer and cancer prevention and, ultimately, to reduce the impact of cancer on the population in the Territory of Guam, the other U.S.-associated Pacific Island territories, and Hawai‘i.