Environmental and Social Interventions for Cancer Risk

(PREEMpT Trial)

This trial explores whether enhancing a neighborhood's physical and social environment can lower cancer risk in communities facing persistent poverty. The focus includes making areas more walkable, enhancing safety, and increasing access to healthcare services like screenings and wellness checks through community initiatives. These changes aim to encourage healthier habits and reduce stress, ultimately lowering cancer risk. Black residents living in targeted areas who speak English might be suitable candidates for this study. As an unphased trial, this study offers a unique opportunity to contribute to community health improvements and potentially lower cancer risk in the neighborhood.

The trial information does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications. It focuses on environmental and social interventions rather than medication changes.

Research has shown that improving living environments can help reduce cancer risk. Changes to the built environment, such as adding better sidewalks, more parks, and improved street lighting, make it easier for people to stay active and access healthcare. These changes have been linked to healthier choices, like exercising more and getting regular cancer check-ups.

Social improvements, including community events and leadership programs, foster connections and collaboration, making communities safer. This can also lower stress, which is known to reduce cancer risk.

Researchers are excited about the Environmental and Social Interventions for Cancer Risk trial because it aims to tackle cancer prevention in a unique way. Unlike traditional methods that focus on medical treatments or lifestyle changes for individuals, this approach modifies community environments, such as improving social spaces and built surroundings, to reduce cancer risk. By creating healthier environments on a community level, this trial explores a proactive approach to prevention that could benefit large populations, potentially leading to widespread reductions in cancer incidence. This innovative strategy offers a fresh perspective on cancer prevention, shifting the focus from treating individuals to enhancing the collective environment.

This trial will compare the effects of environmental and social interventions on cancer risk. Research has shown that improving both the physical and social aspects of neighborhoods can significantly reduce cancer risk. Environmental factors, like those targeted in this study, are linked to 60-80% of cancer cases. By making neighborhoods more walkable and fostering a sense of community, the study aims to reduce stress and promote healthier habits, which are associated with a lower cancer risk. Evidence suggests that cancer prevention efforts can potentially cut the overall cancer burden by up to 60%. This approach aligns with findings that prevention and screening can prevent millions of cancer deaths. Therefore, changing environments to encourage healthier living may effectively lower cancer risk.¹⁶⁷⁸⁹