Cancer Resources for Community Members and Researchers
Massachusetts and Its Residents
Learn more about the population and communities of Massachusetts
Cancer in Massachusetts
Cancer rates and trends for the Commonwealth
Understanding Cancer Risk Factors and the Environment
Learn more about the various risk factors for different cancers
- Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing Across the Life Course (CRESSH)
CRESSH is a partnership between the Boston University School of Public Health and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that studies environmental health disparities in low-income communities and throughout Massachusetts. CRESSH is conducting three independent multidisciplinary projects that utilize the expertise of investigators in epidemiology, exposure science and cumulative risk assessment. We will focus on multi-stressor epidemiology for multiple health outcomes across the life course, exposure science addressing indoor-outdoor exposure patterns using novel sensors and modeling techniques, and quantitative approaches for cumulative risk assessment and disparities analyses that leverage epidemiological and exposure insights. The goal of CRESSH’s research is to understand how simultaneous exposures to multiple chemical stressors and their interactions with non-chemical stressors and social determinants of health lead to environmental health disparities at varying stages of life as measured by birth outcomes, childhood growth trajectories and cardiovascular mortality. CRESSH is part of the Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities (EHD) Research program. - Center for Geospatial Analysis
The Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA)'s core mission is to support research and teaching in all disciplines across Harvard University with emerging geospatial technologies. Working with entities across Harvard, the CGA strengthens university-wide geographic information systems (GIS) infrastructure and services; provides a common platform for the integration of spatial data from diverse sources and knowledge from multiple disciplines; enables scholarly research that would use, improve or study geospatial analysis techniques; and improves the ability to teach GIS and spatial analysis at all levels across the university.Combining consultation services, technical training and platform development, the Center enables a diverse range of research projects involving geospatial analysis. GIS solutions offerred range from general cartography and mapping, geographic data collection, processing and analysis, to spatial visualizations, webmaps, and web services. The CGA also actively promotes geographic reasoning and the use of GIS in the Harvard curriculum. Come to CGA for: access to hardware, software and data
training programs and technical workshops
individual research project consulting
curriculum support for Harvard courses
monthly seminars and colloquia, and an annual conference on GIS topics
tools for GIS applications and platforms for online collaborative research
- Research Resources
- Massachusetts Cancer Risk Factor Summaries
Engaging Cancer in the Community
Resources for community members and researchers
- Planet MassCONECT
PLANET MassCONECT was originally a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project that focused on building capacity in CBOs to find, adapt, and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). The program grew out of MassCONECT (Massachusetts Community Networks to Eliminate Cancer Disparities through Education, Research, and Training), a community network funded by NCI to address cancer disparities in three Massachusetts cities (Boston, Lawrence, and Worcester).
Community Health Needs Assessments
Community-specific needs assessments for various cities and counties in Massachusetts
- Massachusetts Health Network Areas
- Boston CHNA-CHIP
- CHNA18 - West Suburban Community Health Network
- Public Health Institute Network of Western Massachusetts – Western MA CHNA
- South Shore CHNA
- Boston Medical Center CHNA
- DFHCC Brigham and Women’s Hospital CHNA
- DFHCC Boston Children’s Hospital CHNA
- DFHCC Massachusetts General Hospital CHNA
- DFHCC Beth Israel Lahey CHNA