Community News

Bristol Myers Squibb grant to Roswell Park expands Native American Cancer Services

By Tracey Drury – Reporter, Buffalo Business First | January 29, 2021 | reprinted from bizjournals.com

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a $3.3 million grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation to address the cancer burden in rural areas and Native Nations across the state, with an emphasis on Western New York.

The grant supports a collaboration between Roswell Park, the Indian Health Service and geographically matched rural federally qualified health centers across New York, enabling on-site and virtual services including cancer prevention, screening, treatment and education on clinical trials, palliative care and survivorship.

Funding allows the creation of six full-time patient navigators within the community as well as two virtual navigators, who will focus on breast cancer and prostate cancer as well as co-occuring conditions. The program will be led by Rodney Haring, director of the Roswell’s Center for Indigenous Cancer Research, and Kate Glaser, assistant professor of oncology in Roswell Park’s department of cancer prevention and control.

The three-year program is expected to reach 3,200 community members in Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Niagara and Oneida counties and further north into the St. Regis Mohawk territory, Tuscarora and Tonawanda Band of Senecas through Indian Health Services-Lockport, as well as the Allegany and Cattaraugus Territories of the Seneca Nation.

Source: https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2021/01/29/bristol-myers-squibb-grant-to-roswell-park.html?fbclid=IwAR0M5nlOg_T3Y6Xg6gDh2G7EIGwZ4akxsbgiUzLNPAVI6VqTde3nRInNuLo