The Lance Armstrong Foundation today announced that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has joined the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network to address the needs of the growing number of cancer survivors in the United States. Lineberger is the eighth network member institution in the nation. Marci Campbell, Ph.D., foundation principal investigator and professor of nutrition in the UNC’s School of Public Health, will direct the program.

The network is an invitation-only collaborative partnership among the foundation, National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers at leading medical institutions nationwide and their community affiliates. The network seeks to harness the expertise, experience, creativity and productivity of leading centers and their community affiliates to help accelerate the pace of progress in addressing the needs of the growing survivor community. Working together, the network provides essential direct survivorship services and increases the effectiveness of survivorship care through research, the development of new interventions and sharing of best practices.

“We are highly honored to join the prestigious network, whose innovative work is directed at improving the lives of cancer patients,” said Dr. Shelley Earp, director of Lineberger. “The collaboration among UNC’s schools of Medicine and Public Health, in partnership with North Carolina communities, will help us understand how best to address the needs of survivors across the population.”

With this five-year $1.5 million grant, UNC will develop survivorship programs and services at the North Carolina Cancer Hospital and partnering sites around the state. In addition, UNC’s strategic plan includes regional and statewide outreach and education activities for patients, families and professionals. UNC program leaders, directed by Campbell, plan to develop a peer counseling program to match survivors with trained peer counselors and create a Web site for the public and other materials/activities.
 
“Extended cancer survival is a relatively new phenomenon, so the current pace of research and of the development of effective models of care lags behind the need,” said Caroline Huffman, senior program officer at the foundation. “To help accelerate the pace of progress in addressing the needs of the growing survivor community, the foundation established the network to provide comprehensive, one-stop sources of information, care and services for people affected by cancer.”

Other network members include: Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York; Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus; Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of California at Los Angeles; and the University of Colorado Cancer Center, Denver.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation unites people through programs and experiences to empower cancer survivors to live life on their own terms and to raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer. The foundation focuses on cancer prevention, access to screening and care, research and quality of life for cancer survivors. Founded in 1997 by cancer survivor and champion cyclist Lance Armstrong, the foundation has raised more than $250 million for the fight against cancer.

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For more about the Lance Armstrong Foundation Survivorship Network, visit http://www.livestrong.org.  

Lineberger contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-7834, dgs@med.unc.edu.

News Services contact: Clinton Colmenares, (919) 843-1991, clinton_colmenares@unc.edu.

School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.