Building a long distance training program to enhance clinical cancer research capacity in Puerto Rico

Barriers persist in the development and delivery of effective cancer therapies to under-represented minority populations. In Puerto Rico, cancer is the second leading cause of death, yet cancer research awareness and training opportunities remain somewhat limited on the island. These limitations hinder progress toward decreasing the cancer health disparities that exist within the Puerto Rican population. The predominantly Hispanic population of Puerto Rico is the focus of a partnership between the Ponce Health Sciences University-Medical School and Ponce Research Institute (PHSU) in Ponce, Puerto Rico and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. The Partnership goals are to reduce these barriers through an integrated, multipronged approach of training and education alongside outreach and research components. This report describes the approaches, successes and challenges of enhancing clinical cancer research capacity on the island and the unique challenges of a partnership between two institutes physically separated by long distances. Once fully developed this model may be exportable to other Latin American countries where the need is even greater.