The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center has created a new center to address disparities in cancer care.
He Center to Eliminate Cancer Inequity (CinEQUITY) will work to pioneer research that addresses the biological, social, and structural factors that negatively impact excluded or marginalized people in the Chicago area. The goal is to ultimately create solutions to eliminate disparities that can be implemented by communities, health systems, and policymakers.
CinEQUITY is pronounced as “see inequity.” The center’s launch, announced Feb. 16, comes five months after the academic health system broke ground on an $815 million project to build Chicago’s first freestanding facility dedicated to cancer care and research. The new pavilion, scheduled to open in 2027, is designed to dramatically improve the experience of cancer patients, reduce health disparities in underserved communities and accelerate scientific discoveries.
“Unacceptable disparities in cancer prevention and care delivery prevent even current best practices from reaching the least served,” said Kunle Odunsi, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center; dean of Oncology, Division of Biological Sciences; and AbbVie Foundation Distinguished Service Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, in a statement.
“CinEQUITY will unite researchers, community leaders, advocates, survivors, policymakers and partners from diverse sectors to forge innovative pathways toward removing barriers to health equity,” Odunsi said.
On Chicago’s South Side, where UChicago Medicine’s flagship medical campus operates, cancer incidence is expected to increase 12 percent in the next decade alone. South Side residents are twice as likely to die from cancer as people living in the rest of the country.
Serving as a hub to catalyze research aimed at eliminating cancer disparities, CinEQUITY will provide core resources to partner with community leaders in planning the center’s research priorities and evaluating progress; support collaboration with community organizations to implement projects; train in best practices for conducting community-engaged research; create inclusive research teams; and disseminate research results to influence policy and practice.
“CinEQUITY’s mission is to co-design solutions with our community that break down disparities in cancer prevention and care,” said Jasmin Tiro, Ph.D., MPH, professor of Public Health Sciences and director of the new center, in a statement. “Our guiding vision is of a future in which every individual, regardless of their background or circumstances, achieves equitable outcomes in cancer prevention, treatment and survivorship.”
“CinEQUITY allows us to deepen and expand our ongoing work at the Cancer Center to address cancer disparities at multiple levels: care delivery, research and how we communicate with the public,” said CinEQUITY Co-Director, Nita K. Lee, MD. MPH, in a statement. Lee is an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and associate director of Outreach and Community Engagement at the Comprehensive Cancer Center. “By adding more resources and building on the momentum of existing academic-community partnerships, CinEQUITY will accelerate our progress toward cancer equity,” she added.
CinEQUITY’s external advisory board includes national leaders in cancer disparities, including Otis W. Brawley, MD, a renowned cancer disparities researcher and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. He gave a keynote address at the Center’s opening event.
The Comprehensive Cancer Center celebrates 50 years as a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center.
