Overview & Objectives

The Connect for Cancer Prevention Study (Connect) is a prospective cohort study of 200,000 adults in the United States. The study, sponsored by the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), will serve as a crucial resource for present and future generations of cancer researchers. Connect is designed to enable scientists to investigate the etiology of cancer and its outcomes and will inform efforts to prevent cancer and detect it earlier.

Design & Participants

Connect will be conducted within a set of integrated health care systems across the United States. Study participants will include patients of the health care systems who are 30-70 years old and have no prior history of invasive cancer. Recruitment began in late 2021 and the study will follow participants over time. Connect hopes that participants take part for years to come. Participants will complete online questionnaires and provide biological samples at baseline and regularly throughout the duration of their involvement in the study. Additionally, participants will be asked for permission to collect data from their electronic medical records (EMRs). Access to the EMRs, combined with the national tumor registries, will enable Connect researchers to passively follow participants and collect outcome information for cancers and their precursors.

NORC has served as the Support Services contractor for the project since its inception in 2018. In this role, NORC:

• Assists with the development of protocols, questionnaires, training materials for health care system staff, and other study materials.
  
• Operates a centralized help desk to answer questions from participants and people interested in the study.
  
• Tracks regulatory compliance.
  
• Performs data linkages with extant data sets.
  
• Will remotely follow participants who leave their health care systems.
  
  

As Connect evolves, NORC will continue to support its growth into a state-of-the-art cohort. Visit the Connect website to learn more.