Johns Hopkins, Howard University team to improve cancer care

Johns Hopkins and Howard University have worked together for years to improve equity in cancer care, and now they are taking their collaboration to another level.

Clayton Yates, left, and Heng Li are co-principal investigators of a collaboration between Johns Hopkins and Howard University to improve cancer care.

The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Howard University Cancer Center announced a joint effort Tuesday to improve cancer care for Black Americans and those from other disadvantaged groups. Their joint initiative has been dubbed The Howard-Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Alliance in Cancer Research, Education and Equity.

The National Cancer Institute will provide $13.5 million over five years to support the effort.

The community will help inform and direct the effort. Clayton Yates, the inaugural John R. Lewis Professor and chair of pathology, oncology and urology at Johns Hopkins, said in a news release that the effort will involve the guidance of community members.

“It’s important to understand the communities’ needs, be sensitive and ultimately supply what the community is asking for, not what we think their needs are,” Yates, the co-principal investigator of the project, said in a statement.

Johns Hopkins said some of the joint research efforts include a study to examine the drivers of prostate cancer in Black men.

Black Americans are more likely to die of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers and healthcare leaders say Black patients are often diagnosed at later stages. Black patients are less likely to participate in clinical trials.

Through the partnership, Johns Hopkins and Howard say they are looking to expand cancer research and provide better care with improved outreach to disadvantaged communities.

Heng Li, co-principal investigator of the project, said in a statement that he’s looking forward to what Johns Hopkins and Howard can accomplish.

“We are excited to expand the centers’ long-standing collaboration to improve cancer care and health equity by leveraging our complementary strengths and resources,” said Li, the chief proton physicist and associate professor in the department of radiation oncology and molecular radiation sciences at Johns Hopkins.

The institutions also want to develop a more diverse mix of cancer researchers. To that end, Johns Hopkins and Howard will offer research opportunities for medical students, graduate students, and high school students. Faculty from both institutions will work with the students.“We’re dedicated to training the next generation of scientists and making sure that equity starts with training providers and making them culturally competent and sensitive scientists,” Yates said in the news release. “The lasting impact of this collaboration will be our imprint in the community and the people we’re going to train at Howard and Johns Hopkins.”

Johns Hopkins and Howard University partnered for years in an effort to get more participants from underrepresented communities in medical research.

Howard is one of four Black medical colleges to share Michael Bloomberg’s donation of $600 million to improve health equity. Howard is receiving $175 million.