CURE Report Focuses on Reducing Disparities in the Cancer Workforce ► NCI Cancer Bulletin for January 24, 2012 - National Cancer Institute

NCI Cancer Bulletin for January 24, 2012 - National Cancer Institute

CURE Report Focuses on Reducing Disparities in the Cancer Workforce

NCI's Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities has released a new monograph—The CURE Paradigm: Enhancing Workforce Diversity. The Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (CURE) program, launched in 1997, is a national research training and career development effort aimed at building and sustaining a pipeline of competitive cancer investigators from groups typically underrepresented in biomedical science and cancer research.

The monograph traces CURE's goals, its 15-year history, the training and career development opportunities available to trainees and students, the program's achievements to date, and its projected future. The monograph highlights five CURE trainees who describe how the program has enabled them to pursue cancer and health disparities research careers.

CURE is the first National Institutes of Health program to offer long-term support to qualified, underrepresented students and professionals who are at risk of being lost from the training pipeline. Starting with individuals as young as high school students and extending up to newly funded, independent, and competitive cancer researchers, CURE trains people from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds underrepresented in cancer research to help ensure a diverse workforce for the future.