State of the Science National Firefighter Cancer Symposium 2019

Building a Scientific Roadmap for Cancer Control and Prevention in the U.S. Fire Service

Miami, Florida

The first ever State of the Science National Firefighter Cancer Symposium 2019 was held at the University of Miami on June 10-11, 2019.

Since reporting that firefighters have an increased risk of developing cancer, there has been a nationwide effort to combat cancer in the fire service. The 2019 State of the Science National Firefighter Cancer Symposium provided the latest research on firefighter cancer prevention and aimed to create a scientific roadmap for the control and prevention of cancer in the U.S. fire service.

At this meeting, critical barriers in scientific knowledge including the development of uniform data collection instruments, exposure assessment, a better understanding of cancer mechanisms, designing a national firefighter cancer registry, effective cancer screening, and the inclusion of potentially vulnerable groups such as women and racial/ethnic minority firefighters were among the topics addressed.

SSNFCS 2019 began with opening remarks by the event coordinators on Monday, June 10, followed by two full days of speakers and breakout sessions. The conference was located in the Donna E. Shalala Student Center at the University of Miami.