Researchers from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Brunswick have been awarded a five-year, $4.83 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to support efforts in coordinating care for cancer survivors who are managing cardiovascular risks.
Led by Denalee O’Malley, an assistant professor and social work researcher in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers, the study builds on more than 15 years of extensive investigation into the challenges of integrating primary care in survivorship care.
The team is one of four sites nationally to receive funding this year as part of the NCI’s initiative to address primary care needs of cancer survivors.
“For many cancer survivors, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is greater than their risk of dying from cancer,” O’Malley said. “Therefore, it is critical that we emphasize a whole-patient perspective during cancer treatment and ensure that cardiovascular disease risks that are present are managed by primary care throughout the cancer care experience.”
A majority of cancer survivors in the U.S. have cardiovascular disease risk factors and manage at least one chronic condition in addition to their cancer, making them “complex cancer survivors.” Cancer survivors have an eightfold risk of developing cardiovascular disease in their lifetime compared with those without a history of cancer, O’Malley said.
The team includes Jeanne Ferrante, a professor of family medicine and community health at the medical school and director of the New Jersey Primary Care Research Network, and Shawna Hudson, a professor and senior associate dean for population health research at the medical school and vice chancellor for dissemination and implementation science at Rutgers Health. Ferrante and Hudson also are research members of Rutgers Cancer Institute.
Their project, titled ACCESS-PC: Advancing Care Coordination to Enhance Shared Care for Complex Survivors in Primary Care, will refine and test the implementation of a health system intervention to improve cancer patients’ connections with primary care to reduce their cardiovascular risks.
“This important research comes at a pivotal time as we continue to advance cancer treatments and improve survival rates,” Steven Libutti, the director of Rutgers Cancer Institute and senior vice president of oncology services at RWJBarnabas Health, said. “As New Jersey’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, we are committed to advancing the science of cancer and continuing to improve the quality of life for the millions of individuals living with the disease.”
Despite the availability of evidence-based clinical guidelines to manage cardiovascular disease risks, many cancer patients miss or forego essential care for these chronic conditions, particularly during cancer treatment. The ACCESS-PC project seeks to address this gap by promoting a shared care model where primary care and cancer care clinicians collaboratively manage the patient’s health.
Researchers aim to transform cancer survivorship care in the U.S. by enhancing the adoption of shared care delivery models — when two or more clinicians of different specialties care for the same patient. This integration is expected to significantly improve cardiovascular risk management among complex cancer survivors, ultimately improving their long-term health outcomes, O’Malley said.
To achieve this goal, researchers will work with diverse cancer survivors, primary care physicians, and clinicians at Rutgers Cancer Institute, Rutgers Health and RWJBarnabas Health to tailor and test a health system intervention called Primary Care Connect (PC2). PC2 standardizes care planning communication protocols between cancer and primary care teams and provides patient education to complex cancer survivors about the importance of shared care beginning at cancer diagnosis.
The study will test the clinical effectiveness and implementation of the intervention. A randomized controlled trial will be conducted to test the effectiveness of PC2 on primary care connection, chronic disease management and patient-reported outcomes. The study also will evaluate the implementation of PC2 to ensure its sustainability and address the multiple factors influencing the adoption of the shared-care approach within health systems.
The grant runs through April 30, 2029.
