Why cancer deaths are higher in rural communities
Official title: Understanding rural mortality disparities in cancer: a multi-level approach
Funded at Brigham and Women's Hospital · NIH-11469037 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at cancer death rates and local social, economic, and health-care factors to understand why people with cancer in rural areas often have worse outcomes than those in cities.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R37 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brigham and Women's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | January 1, 2022 |
| Project end | December 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $324,897 |
| NIH project number | 7R37CA266193-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11469037 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People diagnosed with breast cancer (and other cancers) who live in U.S. rural counties covered by SEER would be the population whose records are analyzed and who could benefit from future interventions.
✕Less likely to help
Patients who live outside SEER-covered regions, outside the U.S., or who are not captured in cancer registries may not be included and therefore not directly benefit from this project's findings.
What this research studies
If you or someone you know has cancer, researchers will use national cancer registry records to compare survival and death rates across different ways of defining 'rural.' They will link those records to many county-level sources—like the Census, Area Deprivation Index, employment, and local health workforce data—to see which community factors relate to worse outcomes. The team will use multi-level statistical methods to separate what is due to individual circumstances and what comes from living in certain places. The goal is to point to geographic or social drivers that could be changed to improve cancer care and survival in rural areas.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the work could guide targeted programs and policies to reduce higher cancer deaths in rural communities.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research has documented rural–urban gaps in cancer outcomes, but few projects have linked this many county-level datasets and tested multiple rural definitions, making this approach more comprehensive and relatively novel.
Where this research is happening
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Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Kenzik, Kelly — Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Kenzik, Kelly
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.