Dr. Sweasy to confront rural cancer as new AACI president

Joann Sweasy, PhD, director of the National Cancer Institute-designated Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, will begin her two-year term as president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) with a bold vision to confront one of the nation’s most pressing health disparities: rural cancer care. The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is Nebraska’s only NCI-designated center and one of only 73 in the nation.

Dr. Sweasy, who took over leadership of the cancer center in November 2023, said that her first initiative in her new role will be addressing the crisis of rural cancer health across the nation.

She discussed the initiative with AACI members on Oct. 20 at the AACI/Cancer Center Administrators Forum annual meeting and began her term as president on Oct. 21.

“The majority of land in the United States is categorized as rural and even frontier, with only 14-20% of the population lives in these areas,” Dr. Sweasy said. “Individuals residing in rural areas generally have higher rates of morbidity and mortality from cancer. This results from insufficient access to prevention, cancer risk reduction services, and cancer treatment, including clinical trials. This initiative is in alignment with my vision for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, which is to reduce the cancer burden in the State of Nebraska.”

Since most NCI-Designated Cancer Centers like the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, and those pursuing designation, claim rurality as part of their catchment areas, the initiative will enlighten and educate member institutions about rural cancer health.

“We will engage them to share best practices and find solutions that lower barriers to access of cancer care and prevention in rural areas of the United States,” Dr. Sweasy said. “As part of the National Team to lower cancer rates and develop better treatments, all centers will benefit from this initiative.”

Dr. Sweasy laid out a number of goals for the effort during her term, including:

• Mapping access to cancer services – prevention, trials, education – across the nation, as well as outcomes.
• Developing a national image of cancer morbidity and mortality across the U.S. as a function of ruralness.
• Understanding social determinants of health and cancer care (such as insurance, transportation and education) as they relate to being screened, diagnosed with or being treated for cancer while living in a rural area in the U.S.
• Identifying best practices for decreasing morbidity and mortality from cancer in rural regions of the U.S. at a rural summit of NCI-Designated Cancer Centers in the summer of 2027.
• Developing an oversight committee of NCI-Designated Cancer Center rural experts that incorporates voices from rural communities as an ongoing part of AACI, in order to have oversight of implementation of best practices and updating of information.

Dr. Sweasy is an internationally recognized expert in the genetics, cell biology and biochemistry of DNA repair. For the past 25 years her laboratory has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health to study the molecular basis of mutagenesis and DNA repair. 

Before joining the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, she served as director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center. During her tenure, she led the center to renewal of its National Cancer Institute (NCI) comprehensive designation – the highest honor a cancer center can achieve.

Dr. Sweasy also is director of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at UNMC.

AACI is the only membership association dedicated to academic cancer centers. AACI represents more than 100 premier academic and freestanding cancer centers in the United States and Canada. The association advances the objectives of cancer centers by promoting widespread recognition of the cancer center network, educating policymakers and fostering partnerships among cancer centers and like-minded organizations to improve the overall quality of cancer care.