Michigan is uniquely positioned for studying the associations between environmental exposures and cancer risk, due its historical and ongoing adverse environmental exposures, including the Flint water crisis, extreme air pollution burden, and widespread PFAS exposure.

The Michigan Cancer and Research on the Environment Study (MI-CARES) has been established to examine associations between environmental exposures and cancer risk. Ultimately, MI-CARES will be a cohort of over 100,000 Michiganders. Because minority populations are underrepresented in environment and cancer research despite being at greater risk of being exposed to environmental hazards and having worse cancer outcomes, MI-CARES will enroll equal numbers of Black, Latinx, Middle Eastern/North African (MENA), and White participants (i.e., at least 25,000 each).

MI-CARES is open to any Michigan resident aged 25-44. By focusing on this age range, we are capturing exposures during important windows of susceptibility prior to the onset of most cancers. Lifetime residential history is being collected to map proximity/community level environmental exposures. Personal and household environmental exposures are also being collected.

MI-CARES has employed a multifaceted recruitment and community engagement strategy. Recruitment efforts have included canvassing, flyering at community events, utilizing list-servs to share study information, and recruitment events at elementary schools. The most successful recruitment efforts have been utilization of list-servs to share study information and meeting with parents and staff at the elementary school. Engagement efforts have included providing cancer screening information at community-led health fairs, creating educational information for the community regarding environmental toxins and cancer risk, and providing webinars on important topics including increasing young onset colon cancer risk and exposure to microplastics.

More than 2,100 Michiganders have enrolled in MI-CARES during the first nine months of recruitment. Data on initial cohort members including environmental exposure history and demographic characteristics will be presented.