Welcome to the EPIC Center

EPIC CECCR is one of five Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The primary mission of the Effects of Public Information in Cancer (EPIC) CECCR is to study the complex public information environment around cancer and how that affects behavioral choices that people make relevant to cancer. The next five year phase of research at EPIC CECCR will focus on the interaction of public communication and clinical services as they both affect cancer-related outcomes. The EPIC CECCR brings together scholars at the University of Pennsylvania from the Annenberg School for Communication, Abramson Cancer Center, School of Medicine, the Wharton School, the School of Nursing, and the School of Arts and Sciences. Drawing from this broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, the EPIC CECCR seeks new knowledge about cancer communication and develops and tests interventions to enhance cancer-related behavior.

What's New @ the EPIC Center?

CECCR research contributes to NIH findings on PSAs

A new study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse suggest that low-key anti-smoking ads may be more likely to be remembered than sensationalistic attention-grabbing messages. CECCR researcher Dr. Daniel Langleben contributed to the study.

NCI renews EPIC CECCR at Annenberg School for Communication

In December 2008, the National Cancer Institute announced the five newly awarded grants for Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication Research II (CECCR II). Under this five-year initiative, the CECCR won renewed funding of $7.5 million through 2013. The other CECCR II grants went to the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Washington University in St. Louis, and the HMO Cancer Research Network.

In its first five years, the CECCR focused on how people make sense of the complex public information environment and how that affects the behavioral choices they make relevant to cancer. A few of CECCR's accomplishments in the first five years were creating rich cross-disciplinary collaboration among five schools at Penn (Annenberg, Medicine, Wharton, Nursing, and the School of Arts and Sciences) and providing a wide range of training and research opportunities to dozens of post-doctoral doctoral students. The CECCR also provided seed funding to 20 research projects and CECCR related research has led to 41 peer reviewed articles published or forthcoming. You can read a detailed account of EPIC CECCR's first five years of activity at Annenberg in the current News Link published this March as well as in the EPIC History archive.

The 2008 renewal will allow the CECCR is to extend its focus on the role of public information in cancer-related decisions to the broader theme of the interaction of public communication and clinical services as they both affect cancer-related outcomes. The center has launched the next phase in research for two projects as well as evolving the three specialized cores and the addition of The Message Core, which aims to collaborate with cancer-related research projects at Penn and around the country in selecting, designing, testing, and evaluating messages for cancer communication research. You can find more detailed information on the new slate of research throughout the EPIC CECCR website.