News Seton Family of Hospitals Awarded Stimulus Funding, will Expand Research to Benefit Cancer Patients

AUSTIN, TX - (April 21, 2010) - The Seton Family of Hospitals will receive $1.35 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to support research that benefits underserved patients, including survivorship services, early detection of cervical and skin cancers and use of a cancer patient decision tool for breast cancer patients.

NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, is awarding $80 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to expand community-based research at Seton and 15 other first-round members of the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP), and also to add 14 new sites to the network.

"Seton's affiliation with the NCI has allowed us to expand our cancer screening and outreach programs, broaden our research infrastructure and develop quality analysis tools for use throughout the Seton Family of Hospitals," said John Brindley, FACHE and Ministry President with the Seton Family.

Seton will use its funds to:

• Test the implementation of the LIVESTRONG Care Plan, a web-based interactive survivorship planning tool available in both English and Spanish.
• Promote early detection of cervical and skin cancers via screening and education among underserved Hispanic women and older males, respectively.
• Collaborate with multiple NCCCP sites to study whether multidisciplinary cancer care results in improved patient satisfaction and increased adherence to evidence-based treatment guidelines.
• Research the impact of the "A Patchwork of Life" interactive, bilingual breast cancer patient decision aid tool which will guide women throughout the diagnosis and treatment process options.

The NCCCP is a network of community-hospital cancer centers that is working to provide research-based cancer care spanning the full cancer continuum - from prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship through end-of-life care. The program is designed as a community-based platform to support basic, clinical and population-based research initiatives.

NCCCP began in 2007 with 16 hospital-based community cancer centers in 14 states. Seton is the only NCCCP site in the Southwest. The expansion uses approximately $40 million of ARRA funds to support additional research opportunities within the original network of 16 NCCCP sites, including Seton, and another $40 million of ARRA funds to expand the network to include 14 new community cancer centers in eight new states.