In working to address Native American cancer health disparities, it is imperative to build partnerships with tribal communities to increase their trust in the potential benefits of cancer research efforts. The Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention was established in 2002 and the Partnership’s approach is to expand capacity for culturally-sensitive and community-relevant research on cancer and to continue to develop respectful collaborations that empower sovereign Native American communities to define, implement, and achieve their goals for cancer health equity.

Yuri Fedoriw, MD, provides a general background of cancer pathology and tissue diagnosis. The development of testing methods and their application will be discussed, as will the limitations and challenges of cancer classification.

Care of the patient with lung cancer from the time of symptom presentation to the time of starting treatment. Chaely Medley, AGNP-C, will provide a brief overview of the types of lung cancer and broad coverage of types of treatments and symptoms associated with these therapies.

Melanie N. Allard, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AGAC-NP (student), will review basic gastrointestinal tract anatomy and discuss gastrointestinal cancer(s), workup, and treatment. She will differentiate between each disease type specifically with signs/symptoms, statistics, and management, and help attendees to recognize common side effects of treatment and management of symptoms.