CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — APHA 2025 Annual Meeting and Expo
Cancer
Meeting theme: "Making the Public’s Health a National Priority"
Submission Deadline: Friday, March 28, 2025
The APHA Cancer Forum invites abstracts (for oral presentations, poster sessions, and roundtable discussions) describing original research that address topics including behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental risk factors for cancer; prevention, screening, and early diagnosis; interventions and strategies to address social determinants of health across the cancer continuum; cancer treatment patterns, access to care, outcomes, and costs; policy-related topics; and cancer survivorship.
Given the annual meeting’s focus on making public health a national priority, the Cancer Forum requests submissions related to prioritizing high quality cancer care utilizing advocacy and policy along the cancer continuum in the United States and globally. Public engagement and outreach occur at multiple levels, including individuals, organizations, communities, and society, and is essential to ensuring equitable cancer outcomes.
We welcome original investigations and novel approaches that prioritize cancer care in the health care and public health systems both in the US and in international settings, to elevate the focus on cancer disparities among diverse populations. Below we outline Cancer Forum priority areas for the 2025 Annual Meeting.
Innovative Approaches to Addressing Structural Barriers to Equitable Cancer Outcomes through Public Policy or Advocacy Investigations characterizing the role of public policy or advocacy in addressing social determinants of health that may lead to inequitable cancer outcomes disproportionately impacting marginalized populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, rural residents, and LGTBQ+ communities. Special consideration will be given to abstracts describing policy level interventions, evaluation of programs, or opportunities to address cancer inequities by addressing quality, access to cancer programs or cancer care through advocacy or public/institutional policies.
Lessons Learned from International Settings Related to Cancer Care Delivery Across the Cancer Continuum Evaluating cancer care delivery, cancer outcomes, and prevention in international settings with a focus on the impacts of advocacy and/or policy in multi-level systems including the government, health care facilities, and providers, on global cancer practice and research. Special attention will be given to abstracts that highlight culturally relevant methods to measure advocacy and/or policy impacts in global contexts.
Role of Advocacy and Community Partnerships to Drive Systems-Level Change to improve Cancer Care Quality Research measuring or addressing patient, provider or other health professionals’ advocacy efforts and community partnerships in the context of improving cancer care quality for cancer prevention (e.g., screening, reducing cancer risk factors, genetic counseling), cancer diagnosis and treatment, and cancer survivorship across the continuum are of interest.
The Impact of Institutional Environments and Policies on Addressing Social Challenges Across the Cancer Care Continuum We welcome research on novel approaches to addressing institutional environments (laws, policies, regulations) and the impact of these efforts on challenges related to unmet social needs (e.g., food insecurity, housing instability, and transportation barriers) across the cancer care continuum. This includes but is not limited to clinical practice and cancer research. Research that supports public health practice at the population-level will be prioritized.
Other topics that span the interest of the APHA Cancer Forum include:
Cancer Prevention Enhancing cancer prevention efforts (e.g., early interventions targeting risk factors/behaviors; inaccurate information/social media posts on cancer prevention).
Cancer Screening/Diagnosis Improving cancer screening and early Diagnosis (e.g., evaluation of community outreach programs to increase screening rates; costs and benefits of technologies to improve diagnosis).
Cancer Survivorship and Supportive/Palliative Care Developing and promoting survivorship strategies and resources for patients and caregivers (e.g., evaluation of social support programs; novel activities to track and address symptoms associated with cancer or cancer treatments; interventions to improve quality of life for survivors and their caregivers).
Cancer Treatment Advancing Cancer Treatment from a Population Health Perspective (e.g., strategies to enhance quality of care, timeliness of care, and patient-reported outcomes; addressing financial hardship/financial toxicity for individuals with cancer).
Cancer-Related Policies, Laws, and Guidelines Evaluating Policies, Laws, and Guidelines that reduce the public health burden of cancer (e.g., improving access/affordability to screening and treatment; tobacco control regulations; insurance reform; controversies in treatment and prevention guidelines).
Cancer Epidemiology Novel observational studies of risk and preventative factors for outcomes across the cancer continuum. Methodologies to improve measurement and/or epidemiologic research study design with relevance to cancer.
Childhood Cancer Investigations of access to, quality of, effectiveness of, and cost of care for patients with childhood cancer(s); interventions or programs to support patients and/or caregivers affected by childhood cancer; local or global policies to advance childhood cancer treatment and research, and long-term health outcomes of people with childhood cancer.
Submitted abstracts will be evaluated based on their scientific soundness, conceptual and methodological quality, innovation and novelty, and relevance to the above themes. Abstracts submitted to the Cancer Forum are required to include quantitative or qualitative data to be considered for acceptance. Preliminary or pilot data are acceptable, but proposed projects or abstracts with no data at the time of the abstract submission will be rejected.
Reviewers may consider -- possibly among others -- the following in their review:
TOPIC RELEVANCE: Illustrates an aligned topic based on the priority areas of interest outlined above. Importance to public health will also be considered.
PURPOSE: Subject of proposed topic is clear and of high quality.
IMPACT: Topic is significant to the public health academia domain; imparts scholarship to advance academia's mission to improve education and policies for practitioners, researchers, and teachers. Provides evidence of supporting philosophy.
ORIGINALITY: Demonstrates originality and innovation.
TONE: Indicates a working knowledge of operations (e.g., development, challenges, infrastructure) toward improving public health education, training, or services.
OVERALL: Well written, concise, and effectively outlines and communicates abstract scope, context, and rationale.
Important Reminders:
Structured abstracts are limited to 250 words or less, and should include a Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusion Section. Referral to web pages or URLs may not be used for abstracts.
An author may not submit the same abstract to more than one Section, SPIG, Caucus or Forum.
Preferences for oral versus poster presentation will be considered, but the program committee will consider all abstracts for both oral and poster categories. Oral presentations at contributed sessions are generally 13-15 minutes in length (subject to change). An additional 3-5 minutes will be available for discussion and questions from the audience. Presenters at poster sessions should display their work and be available to answer questions throughout the scheduled 60-minute poster session.
If you would like to submit a session proposal, instead of a single abstract, please contact the program planners listed below.
Continuing Education Credit
APHA values the ability to provide continuing education credit to physicians, nurses, health educators, veterinarians, and those certified in public health at its annual meeting. Please complete all required information when submitting an abstract so members can claim credit for attending your session. These credits are necessary for members to keep their licenses and credentials.
For a session to be eligible for Continuing Education Credit, each presenter must provide:
An abstract free of trade and/or commercial product names;
At least one MEASURABLE SINGLE outcome (“to understand” or “to learn” are not measurable outcomes and compound outcomes are not acceptable). Use ONLY the following Measurable Action Verbs: Explain, Demonstrate, Analyze, Formulate, Discuss, Compare, Differentiate, Describe, Name, Assess, Evaluate, Identify, Design, Define or List.
A signed Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form with a relevant qualification statement; Example of Acceptable Biographical Qualification Statement: (I have been the principal or co-principal of multiple federally funded grants focusing on the epidemiology of drug abuse, HIV prevention and co-occurring mental and drug use disorders. Among my scientific interests has been the development of strategies for preventing HIV and STDs in out-of-treatment drug users.) Please note thatI am the Principal Investigator of this study is NOT an acceptable qualification statement.
All continuing education learning content must be of sound science or professional practice and serve to maintain, develop, or increase the knowledge, skills and professional competence of the health professional. Learning content should be evidence-based if available. A list of over 30 areas will be provided online for you to choose from. You will be asked to choose at least one or up to 6 areas that your presentation will address.
Contact Mighty Fine at mighty.fine@apha.org if you have any questions concerning continuing education credit. Please contact the program planners (listed below) for all other questions.
Cancellation Policy
If you are unable to present an accepted abstract submission, you must notify the Cancer Forum program planning committee co-chairs as soon as possible. If you are not able to attend, we ask that you find someone to present your slides or stand with your poster so that we can maintain a full program. Speakers who withdraw from the program without adequate advance notification or fail to show up for their scheduled presentations without previously notifying the program planners of cancellation before the Annual Meeting may not be permitted to give oral or poster presentations for the Cancer Forum program at future Annual Meetings.
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