Philly’s leading cancer centers partner with the community to fight cancer disparities

The Rev. Leroy Miles grew alarmed for his community, at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in North Philadelphia, after Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman’s death at age 43 drew attention to racial disparities in colon cancer.

African Americans are 20% more likely to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer and 40% more likely to die from it than other racial groups in the United States. But at the time of Boseman’s 2020 death, preventive measures like routine colorectal cancer screenings had been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Miles connected with Carmen Guerra, an internist and health equity researcher at Penn Medicine, and asked how they could help Philadelphians catch colon cancer in the most treatable, early stages.

Together, they devised a drive-through mini clinic where community members could pick up an at-home test to test their feces for hidden blood, one of the earliest signs of a polyp — an abnormal growth in the colon or rectum — or colorectal cancer.

One hundred and fifty-four people returned the tests. Thirteen tested positive.

Their partnership was showcased Friday as a potential model for addressing cancer in Philadelphia at a conference organized by Philadelphia Communities Conquering Cancer, called PC3.

Formed in 2021, the coalition was organized by the city’s three health systems with nationally designated comprehensive cancer centers — Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, Jefferson Health’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, and Temple University Hospital’s Fox Chase Cancer Center.

PC3 aims to address cancer disparities in Philadelphia. The coalition offers pilot funding for cancer-related research in partnership with community-based organizations. The conference, held on the University of Pennsylvania campus, brought together researchers and community advocates from across the city.

This emphasis on community engagement aims to build trust between researchers and the communities they wish to help. Involving a local leader like Miles can be comforting for community members who may otherwise be reluctant to participate in research, given concerns such as historic racism in healthcare.

“People don’t care how much you know,” said April Baidal, a panelist representing Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church, “until they know how much you care about them.”

Another partnership showcased at the conference looked at a virus called HTLV-1, which can cause an aggressive blood cancer called adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. It is mainly found in sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Japan, and the Caribbean.

“Almost no one had heard of” HTLV-1, said Sean Reilly, a physician at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. The virus usually doesn’t cause symptoms unless it develops into cancer. This means people may not even know they have it.

He partnered with Abu Mansalay from the Philadelphia-based nonprofit African Cultural Alliance of North America to reach out to Philadelphia’s African and Caribbean communities about possible risk. They virtually hosted an information session last July where they emphasized the importance of preventing further spread of the virus.

On a Zoom call, community members had so many follow-up questions about the virus that they asked Reilly to return for a second session.

Reilly and Mansalay now want to debut a screening van where people can get tested for the virus through a simple blood test.

“If we can eradicate this virus, we can eradicate this cancer,” Reilly said.

Khadijah Mitchell, a researcher at Fox Chase Cancer Center, collaborated with Amelia Price of a nonprofit called Called to Serve, which supports underserved city communities, to address tobacco smoking and lung cancer in North Philadelphia. They hosted events at Zion Baptist Church to share resources and information about quitting.

Their first event was advertised as a “community dinner and discussion,” and encouraged people to talk candidly about smoking.

“It just takes one person to tell their story, and the rest will follow suit,” Price said.

Price’s twin sister, who smokes cigarettes, attended the first event in October. After hearing three testimonies there, she has not picked up a cigarette since.

Mitchell called the partnership a “bidirectional relationship,” and emphasized the importance of working closely with the community to design effective research programs.

“If the community does not want to do something or feel it’s not the right direction to go, it’s a full stop conversation,” Mitchell said.

Robin Evans, a community advisory board member at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, was diagnosed 11 years ago with stage four breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver.

Now she uses her perspective to evaluate grants alongside researchers and address community concerns and mistrust.

“As my father would tell me, if you ain’t at the table, you’re on the menu,” she said.

She encouraged cancer patients to participate in clinical trials. Her own mother, who was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer and given a year to live, had declined to come to Philadelphia for a clinical trial.

People had talked her out of it, saying, “You gonna let them experiment on you?” Evans recalled.

» READ MORE: More Black patients are participating in clinical trials for cancer treatment at Penn thanks to this effort

Her mother died at the end of that year. Meanwhile, the drug tested in the trial helped other women to live years longer and is now one of the top drugs given for small cell lung cancer.

“Those are the types of stories that communities need to hear,” Evans said. “We are never going to make any advancements in the disparities of cancer until we understand and participate in clinical trials.”