Lance Armstrong Foundation Awards Grant to UPMC Cancer Centers to Reduce Barriers to Cancer Care Among African-Americans

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 21 – To address the barriers that African-Americans experience when accessing cancer care, UPMC Cancer Centers has been awarded $50,000 from the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). The grant will enable health care professionals at the Hillman Cancer Center to understand more about how they can better meet the needs of African-Americans with cancer.

“The burden of cancer is too often greater for the poor, ethnic minorities and the uninsured,” said Joyce Grater, PhD, principle investigator of the grant and program coordinator at the Hillman Cancer Center. “It is vitally important for us to understand the factors that impede access to care in order to provide cancer services to patients, their families and communities with the greatest needs.”

According to Dr. Grater, some of the barriers experienced by African-American patients include transportation to and from treatment, housing problems and lack of health insurance.

To learn more about these and other barriers, the grant will be used to create a database to document and track the barriers to care experienced by African-American patients treated at the Hillman Cancer Center. Specialized care facilitators, or patient navigators, will be trained to resolve barrier-related problems by working closely with patients to meet their needs over a two-year period. The patient navigator will provide patients with emotional support, assistance navigating the health care system, and help accessing community resources.

“Over time, we expect to gain invaluable information about the types of barriers African-American patients experience, the frequency at which they occur and how best to resolve them,” said Dr. Grater. “We are extremely grateful to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for this opportunity.”

UPMC Cancer Centers is one of 27 community, non-profit organizations across the country to receive LAF grants this year to help people with the physical, emotional and practical challenges of cancer. The LAF was founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, and is located in Austin, Texas

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