Research and Programs
Minority & Women Clinical Trials Recruitment Program
The mission of the Minority & Women Clinical Trials Recruitment Program is to increase the participation of minorities and women on cancer clinical trials and other cancer-related studies through targeted interventions that reduce or eliminate barriers to enrollment.
New Mothers (Project MOM)
The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate a treatment to reduce postpartum relapse rates for women who quit during pregnancy by increasing commitment and motivation to remain a non-smoking mother.
Principal Investigator: David W. Wetter, Ph.D.
African-American Smokers (Break Free)
The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate a culturally appropriate, computer-delivered smoking cessation treatment for African-American smokers.
Principal Investigator: David W. Wetter, Ph.D.
Mindfulness in Smoking Cessation (MIND)
The purpose of this two-group randomized clinical trial is to develop and evaluate a Mindfulness-Based Treatment (MBT) for nicotine dependence that is delivered in a group format.
Principal Investigator: David W. Wetter, Ph.D.
Puerto Rico Health Department Quitline
The Puerto Rico Quitline provides professional counseling to help individuals stop smoking. The Puerto Rico Quitline can help smokers learn to identify situations in which they feel the need for a cigarette and develop new responses that don’t include tobacco.
Principal Investigator: David W. Wetter, Ph.D.
Project INFORM (RO1) (Literacy and Smoking Risk Communications)
This study will examine how health literacy influences responses to smoking risk messages manipulated in terms of message framing and emotionality.
Principal Investigator: Jennifer Irvin Vidrine, Ph.D.
Ask-Advise-Connect (R18) (Dissemination of a Smoking Quitline to the Underserved)
This study will focus on increasing dissemination of an existing evidence-based smoking cessation program, the State of Texas Quitline (i.e. Quitline), which is provided by the American Cancer Society.
Principal Investigator: Jennifer Irvin Vidrine, Ph.D.
Smoking Cessation among Spanish-Speaking Smokers
This protocol focuses on the mechanisms underlying smoking cessation and relapse among Spanish-speaking smokers, and how these mechanisms are influenced by education and acculturation.
Principal Investigator: Carlos A. Mazas, Ph.D.
African American and West African Women's Health Project
The long-term goal of The African American and West African Women's Health Project is to begin to form a health link between the two cultures, based on the belief that each culture can and will inform the other, and ultimately increase our understanding of breast cancer in both populations.
Principal Investigator: Janice A. Chilton, Dr.P.H.
STELLAR Minority Inclusion Project
Clinical trials are unfamiliar to most people who could benefit, regardless of their socio-economic background or culture. Women, regardless of their race/ethnicity, have been excluded from clinical research. African-American, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American women represented in breast cancer clinical trials are disproportionate to their breast cancer rates of morbidity or mortality.
Principal Investigator: Janice A. Chilton, Dr.P.H.
Symptoms, Symptom Management and End-of-Life Care in Latino Medicare Beneficiaries With and Without Cancer
This study is an ancillary study to a larger four-year Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) demonstration project, entitled Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration for Ethnic and Racial Minorities.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
Health - Prostate Cancer and Health Disparities Research
The purpose of this study is to examine levels of knowledge, beliefs and risks perceptions related to prostate cancer and screening and assess the preferred patterns in the delivery of health care and cancer prevention messages among African American, Latino, Asian and Native American men from Houston, Texas, and its surrounding counties.
Principal Investigator: Isabel Torres, Ph.D.
The FRESNO (Fresno Environmental Survey of Needs and Opinions) Project
A pilot for a community needs assessment to examine environmental exposure and health concerns facing the residents of Fresno, Texas.
Principal Investigators: Maria A. Hernandez-Valero, Dr.P.H., Denae King, Ph.D.
The African American Nutrition for Life Project (A NU LIFE)
A low fat, high fiber nutrition intervention to reduce the risk of breast cancer among pre-menopausal African American women, 25-45 years. This five-year project will be completed in Summer, 2007. Funding applications have been submitted to expand this intervention to include a physical activity component.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Asian American Health Needs Assessment Project (AsANA)
A random telephone survey conducted with over 400 Vietnamese and 400 Chinese households in the greater Houston area to collect baseline health and cancer data on this rapidly growing population. Funding applications are being submitted to expand this project to include other Asian subgroups, such as the South Asian (Asian Indian) community.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Prostate Outreach Project (POP)
A community-based prostate cancer screening program targeted at minority men 40 to 70 years of age.
Principal Investigators: Curtis Pettaway, M.D., Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Demonstration Project
A national project assessing the cost benefit of cancer screening and patient navigation services for Medicare recipients. The CRMH site targets the Houston Latino population.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
EXPORT Project, Bridging the Gap: Addressing Environmental Health Through Science
A P60 grant establishing the CRMH as a Center of Excellence in Partnership for Community Outreach Research on Health Disparities and Training. Grant components include efforts to address environmental health and long-term, multidisciplinary research, education and community outreach programs pertinent to the needs of minorities in Houston and South Texas.
Principal Investigators: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D., Maria A. Hernandez-Valero, Dr.P.H.., Richard Hajek, Ph.D., Janice A. Chilton, Dr.P.H., Beverly Gor, Ed.D., Gloria Regisford, Ph.D., George Stancel, Ph.D., Robin Fuchs-Young, Ph.D
Biomarkers of Genetic Susceptibility in Environmentally Exposed Mexican-American Migrant and Seasonal Farm Worker Women and Their Children (from Mother to Child) Project
A molecular epidemiological study to investigate the effect of intermediate genetic susceptibility biomarkers and health risks associated with pesticide exposure in migrant and seasonal farm worker mothers and their children.
Principal Investigator: Maria A. Hernandez-Valero, Dr.P.H.
The Ovarian Cancer and Nutrition Education Study (The ONE Study)
An investigation of the role of diet in the quality of life of ovarian cancer survivors, measured through questionnaires, weight maintenance records, serum carotenoid levels (biomarkers of fruit and vegetable intake) and maintenance of a normal range of serum albumin levels.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Women’s Healthy Eating and Living (WHEL) Study
An ongoing multi-center (seven clinical sites) randomized controlled trial examining the hypothesis that a plant-based dietary pattern affects the course of cancer and longevity. WHEL tests whether a low-fat high fiber diet that is high in nutrient and phytochemical-rich vegetables and fruits is associated with a longer breast cancer event-free interval and increased longevity in women previously treated for early stage breast cancer. The study has enrolled 3,109 women (389 women from the M. D. Anderson site) who were within four years of a primary diagnosis of Stage I (>1 cm), Stage II and Stage IIIA breast cancer and who had completed standard therapy. The study has completed recruitment and is closed to new patient entry.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D., Janice Chilton, Dr.P.H., Richard Hajek, Ph.D., Maria A. Hernandez-Valero, Dr.P.H., John Pierce, Ph.D.
The PIPELINE Scientific Training Program
The program links training from high school to graduate programs, introducing qualified Texas young people to a research environment and providing firsthand experiences in the varied career opportunities available in the biomedical sciences, public health and community-based participatory research.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Science Centered Inquiry-Based Educational Activities in Collaborating Elementary Classrooms (SCIENCE) Project
A partnership between the CRMH and the Fort Bend Independent School District to conduct an educational intervention project focused on environmental health sciences and to nurturing elementary students' interest in environmental health science and research.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Health Disparities Summer Workshop and Fall Course
A course/workshop entitled "Disparities in Health in America--Working Toward Social Justice" offering a comprehensive approach to the issue of health disparities and providing attendees with a broad knowledge of the issues.
Principal Investigator: Lovell A. Jones, Ph.D.
The Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics on Smoking Cessation
The primary aim of this research is to examine how neighborhood characteristics influence the mechanisms underlying the process of smoking cessation and relapse prevention during a specific quit attempt among diverse community samples at increased risk for health disparities in cancer.
Principal Investigator: Lorraine R. Reitzel, Ph.D.
Peer-support motivational interviewing PA intervention for African American women
The primary goal of the proposed intervention is to examine the efficacy of using MI techniques to foster better reciprocal social support for a church-based sample of sedentary AA women.
Principal Investigator: Lorna Haughton McNeill, Ph.D.
Perceptions of school, recreation, and transportation environments among African American families in public housing-II
The aims of the proposed study are to examine how youth and their parents use and perceive three active living domains for physical activity in schools, recreation, and transportation environment.
Principal Investigator: Lorna Haughton McNeill, Ph.D.
Social, contextual, and environmental determinants of physical activity in sedentary minority adults
This longitudinal cohort study will be conducted among 300 sedentary black and Latino adults, and examine PA initiation and maintenance over a 1-year period.
Principal Investigator: Lorna Haughton McNeill, Ph.D.