GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Dr. Virginia Dodd (HEB) will be a co-investigator in a new center to combat head and neck cancer.

The National Institutes of Health announced a five-year, $5.3 million grant to the University of Florida College of Dentistry to fund a new research center aimed at reducing disparities in head and neck cancer survival through prevention and early detection among low-income, minority men.

Dodd will join faculty from the College of Dentistry and the College of Medicine to develop health education messages about the disease for the center.

Head and neck cancer is not the most prevalent form of cancer, but even among those who survive the illness, it can result in severe damage to a person’s ability to speak or even swallow, Dodd said.

“The numbers overall may not seem that large but this form of cancer is devastating, especially when diagnosed in late stages,” Dodd said. “There are disparities within groups so it’s important to work with different groups to increase screening rates.”

There is fairly low awareness of head and neck cancer – formally known as oral and pharyngeal cancer – among patients. Also, patient education and regular screening by oral health and medical practitioners is needed, Dodd said.

“Medical practitioners do not typically screen for oral cancer, and there are many people who don’t see a dentist; therefore many people are not being screened at all,” Dodd said.

Dodd received a degree in dental hygiene from St. Petersburg Junior College in 1990 and her Ph.D. in 2000 from the University of South Florida College of Public Health. She has a social marketing background and expertise in developing public health campaigns. Dodd says her work complements the clinical expertise of her colleagues in the medical and dental colleges.

“We kind of mesh. Together we can craft a better health intervention, one that addresses the true needs of the public,” Dodd said.

Dodd became involved in the project because of a long-running working connection and convergent interests with professors in the medical and dental colleges, whom she had known in her previous position at the University of South Florida. At UF, she worked with the same group on a project five years ago that was successful in increasing screening rates for the cancer among urban minority populations in the Jacksonville area.

Part of the challenge Dodd and her colleagues will face now is developing a strategy for informing a rural population in Alachua and surrounding counties about the disease.

“As a team we’ll work together to tell the people what they want to know in a form that they prefer,” Dodd said.

The rate of survival after diagnosis of the illness is lower for African-American men, partially because of low-screening rate. But investigating other reasons will be part of the center’s mission, Dodd said.

“The need to explore other reasons for this lower survival rate is why research in the area of oral health disparities is essential,” Dodd said.

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