It is one of four grants awarded nationally by the NCI through its Exercise and Nutrition Interventions to Improve Cancer Treatment-Related Outcomes (ENICTO) in Cancer Survivors Consortium.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded $7 million for research led by Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, to study the impact of nutrition and exercise on ovarian cancer outcomes on underrepresented women who are Black and Hispanic in South Florida.

"Historically, there has not been an emphasis on studying the use of exercise and healthy eating during cancer treatment. The focus on lifestyle behaviors has predominantly been in the post-treatment phase, and how to use healthy diets and exercise to prevent cancer from coming back,” said the study’s co-principal investigator Tracy Crane, Ph.D., R.D.N., director of lifestyle medicine and digital health in cancer survivorship and co-leader of the Sylvester’s Cancer Control Research Program. “This is the first time the NCI has made a concerted effort, with dedicated resources to better understand the role of exercise and nutrition in improving treatment outcomes, and our study will help to build this evidence. The fact that the NCI has recognized Sylvester and its diverse catchment area as a key player in answering this question is huge."

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Yale Cancer Center are leading the research. Each center will recruit 100 newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients scheduled to receive treatment, including surgery and chemotherapy. Patients will be randomly assigned either to a medical nutrition therapy and exercise intervention that Dr. Crane helped to develop and studied, or to an attention control condition.

The intervention will be tailored to each patient and will evaluate whether the intervention improves their ability to tolerate and complete treatment. It will be conducted in Spanish and English.