CPC Program Research Focus Areas
The Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Program at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center leads innovative research across the cancer continuum—from prevention and early detection to survivorship. Through multidisciplinary collaboration and community partnership, CPC researchers address the most urgent cancer risks affecting Nebraska and beyond, including obesity, tobacco use, environmental exposures, and rural disparities. Our program supports this work through specialized resources and a robust clinical trial infrastructure, translating scientific discoveries into meaningful improvements in cancer outcomes.
Obesity: Addressing a Critical Risk Factor
Nebraska faces significant obesity challenges, with 30 rural counties showing obesity rates substantially higher than the national average of 33.4%, reaching up to 49.2% in some areas. Our obesity research program addresses this critical cancer risk factor through innovative approaches ranging from molecular mechanisms to community interventions.
Smoking: Combating Nebraska's Tobacco Challenge
With 28 rural and 2 urban Nebraska counties showing significantly higher smoking prevalence than the national average, tobacco control represents a critical priority. Our smoking research program employs innovative approaches to understand and combat tobacco-related cancer risks.
Environmental Risks: Understanding Cancer Risk Factors
Environmental exposures contribute significantly to cancer development, particularly in rural and agricultural communities. Our environmental research program investigates how neighborhood environments, occupational exposures, and social determinants influence cancer risk and outcomes.
Early Detection Methods: Advancing Precision Prevention
Early detection saves lives. Our research program develops innovative biomarkers and screening approaches for cancers that disproportionately affect our region, including pancreatic and prostate cancers.
Rural Health: Addressing Geographic Disparities
Rural cancer disparities represent a critical challenge in our catchment area. Our rural health research program investigates these disparities and develops targeted interventions to improve cancer outcomes in rural and frontier communities.
Survivorship Research and Patient Outcomes: Improving Lives After Treatment
Cancer survivorship research addresses the growing population of cancer survivors, focusing on treatment-related complications, quality of life, and long-term health outcomes.
Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials
Our clinical trials program translates research discoveries into patient care, with 16 active CPCP studies that have accrued 103 patients in the past year, including 41 participants in interventional trials.
Featured Research Projects
Project: Dr. Janos Zempleni leads the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules (NPOD), a unique center that harnesses bioactive food compounds to prevent and treat obesity. With nearly $200 million in leveraged research funding, the NPOD has produced 1,044 publications and 758 presentations, including intervention studies in rural Hispanic populations in Nebraska and Native Americans in South Dakota.
Project: Dr. Kristina Bailey's collaboration with TCRP investigators examines how aging-related changes in a lung protein increase cancer susceptibility, providing crucial insights into obesity-related lung cancer risk.
Project: Alcohol and liver disease research, led by Drs. Carol Casey and Karuna Rasineni, investigates how alcohol-induced fatty liver disease creates cancer risk, supported by multiple NIH grants.
Project: Dr. Daisy Dai's NCI and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded research program investigates electronic cigarettes using novel biomarker measurement approaches. Her work, supported by multiple grants and collaboration with the University of Souther California’s Tobacco Center, could revolutionize how we assess tobacco product harms and develop cessation strategies.
Project: Dr. Rick Bevins leads the Rural Drug Addiction Research Center, bringing together neuroscience, psychology, and epidemiology experts to address substance use in rural populations. His additional NIH-funded research examines behavioral and cognitive factors in tobacco use disorders.
Project: Dr. Peters leads collaborative research with Rutgers, Emory, and Detroit examining how neighborhood social and physical environments affect ovarian cancer survival outcomes. This NIH-funded work incorporates inflammatory biomarkers to understand the complex relationships between environmental factors and cancer progression.
Project: Our environmental research extends to understanding rural-specific exposures and their cancer implications, providing crucial data for prevention strategies in agricultural and frontier communities.
Project: Dr. Surinder Batra's NIH-funded collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center validates biomarkers for early pancreatic cancer diagnosis and risk stratification. The team has identified novel serum biomarker panels that could revolutionize pancreatic cancer detection. Their PancreaSeq panel helps define the malignant risk of pancreatic cysts, moving toward clinical implementation.
Project: Dr. Michael Hollingsworth's innovative Rapid Autopsy Program provides high-quality human specimens across disease stages, and the program’s high-risk pancreatic cancer cohort study has enrolled over 600 participants to date.
Project: Our iCARE2 tissue registry research demonstrates that rural Nebraska patients are diagnosed with prostate cancer at younger ages and experience higher mortality compared to urban patients, highlighting urgent needs for improved rural cancer care.
Project: Dr. Jungyoon Kim's BEAT Cancer initiative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, developed an innovative colorectal cancer screening intervention for African American communities. This community-informed approach, recognized with the 2025 American Public Health Association Cancer Equity Award, demonstrates effective strategies for addressing screening disparities.
Project: Dr. Bhatt's NCI-funded multicenter study represents the first research examining functional outcomes in older adults with AML treated with venetoclax-based therapy. This 7-center collaboration, now recruiting rural populations through partnership with the office of Community Outreach & Engagement, could encourage more older adults to receive potentially life-saving treatment.
Project: Dr. Amy Hoffman's NCI-funded exercise intervention trial enrolled 192 lung cancer surgery patients across multiple institutions, developing evidence-based approaches to managing cancer-related fatigue through home-based exercise interventions.
Project: Dr. So-Youn Kim's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)-funded oncofertility research investigates protecting ovarian function in female cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, potentially preserving fertility and endocrine health for young cancer survivors.
Project: The δ-tocotrienol Phase II trial, led by Drs. Batra and Malafa (Moffitt), investigates preventing Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) progression to pancreatic cancer across three major cancer centers. This bench-to-bedside work could establish a new paradigm for pancreatic cancer prevention.
Project: Drs. Bergan and Natarajan's precision agent trial targets prostate cancer cell motility inhibition, representing an innovative approach to cancer prevention-interception therapy.