Last month AACI welcomed University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center (UPRCCC) and Cancer Center at Brown University to its membership roster, bringing the association’s total number of members to 102.

Directed by Marcia Cruz-Correa, MD, PhD, UPRCCC has a longstanding relationship with AACI, first holding membership in the association in 1977. Today UPRCCC aims to deliver research-driven cancer care by integrating patient care, research, and prevention and to eradicate cancer in Puerto Rico using a multidisciplinary approach of translational, clinical, and population sciences research. The cancer center’s research model includes the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Division of Cancer Biology, and the Division of Cancer Medicine.

UPRCCC participates in programs across the island for cancer screening including colorectal, breast, cervical, and lung cancer. The center is affiliated with University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, with participation of clinical and research faculties and educational programs across various schools including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and public health. The cancer center has also implemented several research and prevention activities and programs related to human papillomavirus (HPV), including HPV vaccination clinics established in partnership with a local coalition for vaccination. A strong early-phase cancer prevention clinical trials program and a community-based National Cancer Institute clinical trials oncology program provides access to novel therapies to the Hispanic population the center serves. 

The mission of Cancer Center at Brown University is to build world-class cancer research programs that bring basic science discoveries; interdisciplinary research; and innovative therapeutic, disease intervention, and cancer prevention clinical trials to patients in Rhode Island. Under the direction of Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, the cancer center takes a broad-spectrum approach, from working to understand how cancer develops, grows, and metastasizes; to developing new, personalized therapeutics and addressing the needs of patients with cancer from risk through survivorship.

Cancer center members represent Brown University, the Lifespan Cancer Institute, affiliated hospitals, the Warren Alpert Medical School, and Brown’s School of Public Health and School of Engineering, among others. The center has research programs in Cancer Biology, Cancer Therapeutics, and Population Science, cancer type-specific Translational Research Disease Groups, core resources, and a robust portfolio of clinical trials. A particular focus of the Cancer Center at Brown University is malignancies with higher rates of incidence in Rhode Island such as bladder, lung, breast, thyroid, and skin cancer, as well as issues of access to and affordability of cancer care.