Grant will help
Cancer Center
attract new talent

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

The Cancer Research Center of Hawaii is seeking applicants for two-year grants that it hopes will bring talented new researchers to the state.

The National Cancer Institute awarded the Hawaii center a five-year, $2.43 million grant for training in research that "reduces cancer risk, incidence, morbidity and mortality and improves quality of life."

"This is another step in improving the level of care for those who have cancer," said Dr. Carl-Wilhelm Vogel, Cancer Research Center director.

Most of the money will be used to pay trainees, said Dr. Karen Glanz, lead researcher.

The center is recruiting postdoctoral scientists, clinicians and others interested in cancer control research locally and on the mainland. "It will be competitive because it's a very good program, very prestigious to get a training fellowship," Glanz said.

"The big thing for epidemiologists and people like me in the community research area is that it will allow us to bring new people into the state to help grow our own talented research pool."

It also will provide opportunities for Hawaii researchers on the mainland to return home, Glanz said.

Training will be provided in a wide range of areas, such as nutrition, tobacco control, identification of patient needs and complementary and alternative cancer therapies.

Each trainee will be hooked up with a senior faculty member in their field of interest.

Three applicants will be accepted per year, each for two years, Glanz said.

The goal is to try to retain the best ones at the end of that period and increase their ability to attract research grants, she said.

The center already has received a couple of applications.

Glanz said the training plan and environment here "provide an ideal opportunity for quality career development for cancer-control scientists in the 21st century."

She said the program "is a big part of building our research enterprise" on the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus. The Manoa research unit is one of 60 National Cancer Institute-designated centers.

The Cancer Research Center of Hawaii is a research unit of UH-Manoa and one of 60 National Cancer institute-designated cancer centers in the nation.