Roswell Park Receives $4.5M To Study Tobacco Use

BUFFALO, NY — Will the new graphic health labels on cigarette packages keep youth from becoming addicted and help smokers quit? Does providing information about harmful and potentially harmful constituents in tobacco products deter use? What do consumers believe about health hazards from different tobacco products, and how do these beliefs affect use? Scientists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Roswell Park) will answer such questions as a research partner in the largest study to date of tobacco use in the United States. Roswell Park will receive $4.5 million over five years through a contract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with the Center for Tobacco Products at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products. This study will help guide new FDA regulations and actions and examine and monitor changes in tobacco use and health impacts as a result of these regulations. They include, among others, restrictions on tobacco marketing and sales to youth, requirements for bigger, bolder health warnings, and education about the harms of tobacco products. Andrew Hyland, PhD, a Research Scientist in the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park, is lead investigator.

“More than 440,000 Americans die each year from tobacco use. That’s too many,” says Dr. Hyland.  “I want the science generated from this study to inform the best approaches to reduce the death burden that tobacco places on our society as quickly as possible. ”

This national longitudinal study of tobacco use will recruit more than 44,000 adults and youth, including more than 25,000 tobacco users. Participants will be interviewed annually, and biological samples will be collected. Study data will help provide a scientific basis for evaluating tobacco-product regulations in the U.S.

“This will create the largest cohort of tobacco users ever assembled,” adds Hyland. “The research data gathered from this study will offer an unprecedented resource for advancing the science of tobacco control. ”

The overall contract was awarded to Westat, of Rockville, MD, and Roswell Park is the designated scientific lead for the study. Other research partners include Legacy, Pinney Associates, the University of California at San Diego, the University of Waterloo, Hooper Holmes, Fisher BioServices, AMSAZ and the LUX Consulting Group. The total contract award for five years for all partners combined is $118.3 million.

The mission of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Roswell Park, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit Roswell Park’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email AskRoswell@Roswellpark.org.