Kevin  Ward

Current/Recent Positions

2021-present   Treasurer - North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) 

2019-present   Executive Board Member, North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR)

2014-2019       Advisory Committee, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Izmir Hub

2014-2018       Executive Board, North American Representative, International Association of Cancer Registries

2009-present   Chair, Data Evaluation and Certification Committee, NAACCR

2009-present   Member, Winship Cancer Institute, Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program

Current Grants / Contracts (Active in 2024)

Georgia Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Registry  - Role: PI         

This contract covers the operational activities of the population-based Georgia Cancer Registry for the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program. It has been in operation since 1975 covering 5 metropolitan Atlanta counties.  The registry expanded in 2010 to cover the entire state of Georgia providing statewide data back to 2000.  The registry supports cancer control, prevention, and research activities across the state and contributes to the overall mission of the Surveillance Research Program at the NCI.                                                           

Testing a Low Cost Population- and Theory-Based Outreach Intervention to Engage Ovarian Cancer Survivors and their Close Relatives to Consider Genetic Services - Role: Co-Investigator 

The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate the reach of a low cost population- and theory-based outreach intervention to identify, engage and inform ovarian cancer survivors and their close relatives about their cancer risk. State cancer registries are a viable platform to use low cost outreach approaches to contact survivors, offer genetic counseling, and options for contacting relatives.    

Registering Cancer Recurrences in the Georgia Cancer Registry - Role: MPI

Non-metastatic cancer patients and their physicians need information about the short-term and long-term risks of recurrence, and how these risks vary with age, gender, race-ethnicity, other demographic characteristics, tumor characteristics, and treatment received. This study aims to use the Georgia Cancer Registry to systematically record recurrence information for four cancers and to use this information to describe recurrence patterns.

Refined Capture-Recapture Methods for Surveilling Cancer Recurrence - Role: Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to develop best statistical practices for estimating case totals by means of a novel C-R estimator that harnesses the power of the principled sampling effort behind the anchor stream while offering markedly enhanced precision. We propose to extend our approach to account for misclassification, which is induced in the case of our motivating studies when surveillance streams identify potential true recurrences in an error-prone manner.

Ovarian Cancer Survival in African-American Women - Role: Subcontract PI

The overarching goal of this study is to assemble the first cohort study of African-American epithelial ovarian cancer survivors by expanding recruitment and continuing follow-up of The African American Cancer Epidemiology Study (AACES) cases from the original cohort.  The study will use innovative multi-level approach to evaluate the impact of factors at the neighborhood, individual and cellular level on survival.

Flexible NLP Toolkit for Automatic Curation of Outcomes for Breast Cancer Patients  - Role: Subcontract PI

The goal of this study is to build a flexible natural language processing (NLP) toolset that can be executed locally at the institution level and will curate the clinical and patient-centered outcomes of breast cancer patients by parsing longitudinally acquired clinic notes, radiology and pathology reports.

The Role of Multilevel Healthcare Access Dimensions in Ovarian Cancer Disparities - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to evaluate the association between dimensions of HCA and racial disparities in the receipt of recommended care and 5-yr disease specific survival.  To capture all five dimensions of healthcare access, we have created a comprehensive patient survey and are recruiting hundreds of Black, Hispanic, and White ovarian cancer patients across the United States, gathering robust data to inform strategies that may improve care for all ovarian cancer patients

Research on Prostate Cancer in Men of African Ancestry: Defining the Roles of Genetics, Immunity and Stress - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to identify the determinants and characteristics of aggressive prostate cancer in African American (AA) men.  Reasons for the greater burden of aggressive disease may be due to greater exposure to lifetime social stressors, inherited susceptibility, tumor related features such as somatic alterations and inflammatory processes, and differences in risk factor prevalence. While each of these components may be studied in isolation, this study provides an opportunity for the coordinated investigation of both the independence and inter-relationship of these components simultaneously.                          

Disparities in the Delivery and Quality of Breast Cancer Survivorship Care - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The purpose of the proposed research is to further our understanding about survivorship care delivery by examining how primary care physician and oncologist involvement in care impacts the quality of survivorship care and patient burden related to breast cancer treatment. This is important work for our cancer patient population in Georgia as the proportion of breast cancer patients surviving their diagnosis continues to grow.                                   

Methods and Tools for Integrating Pathomics Data into Cancer Registries - Role: Co-Investigator

The goal of this project is to enrich SEER cancer registry data with high-quality population-based information arising from digitized Pathology slides. This dataset will provide a unique, population-wide tissue based view of cancer and dramatically accelerate our understanding of the stages of disease progression, cancer outcomes, and predict and assess therapeutic effectiveness.                                                                   

Genetic Testing, Treatment Use, and Mortality after Diagnosis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The purpose of the proposed research is to gain a better understanding of how genetic testing is deployed in a large representative cancer patient population, how test results are managed and the impact of test results on treatment use and cancer mortality.  Specific focus will be given to potential disparities in test use and results across sociodemographic and clinical subgroups. 

Operation of Statewide Cancer Registry, GA. Dept. of Public Health - Role: Subcontract PI 

This contract covers the operational activities of the population-based Georgia Cancer Registry for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries, established in 1995.  The Georgia Center for Cancer Statistics at Emory University is the subcontractor for the state of Georgia to conduct this public health surveillance activity.  Cancer is a reportable disease in every state and the GCR supports the registration of each cancer case within the state of Georgia.

A Registry-Based Study of Patterns of Use of Targeted Therapies for Metastatic Cancers in Diverse Populations - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

One of the most important advances in cancer care in recent history is the rapid dissemination of targeted therapy (both molecularly targeted kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors) into the care of patients with metastatic cancer. The goals of this study are to identify groups of patients with metastatic cancers who are vulnerable to non-receipt of targeted therapies, to identify medical oncologists who are less likely to prescribe targeted therapies and to quantify and explain the influence of attending medical oncologist on variation in use of targeted therapies.

A population-based virtual solution to reduce gaps in genetic risk evaluation and management in families at high risk for hereditary cancer syndromes:  The Georgia-California GeneLINK Trial - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to conduct a trial of cascade genetic risk evaluation in families with hereditary cancer syndromes. The Georgia Cancer Registry will facilitate the recruitment of cancer patients from the state of Georgia to complete an initial eligibility survey and will then invite eligible patients to enroll in the trial.  This research will evaluate the effects of the level of personalized genetic risk navigation support and the price offered to the family for the genetic test. 

Gaps in Genetic Risk Prevention in Breast Cancer Patients and Their Family - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to explore the impact of genetic testing on individualizing treatment and secondary prevention decisions for patients with breast cancer.  The Georgia Cancer Registry will facilitate the recruitment of cancer patients to complete a survey examining: 1) potential gaps and disparities in patients’ attitudes and behaviors about the management of second cancer risk in relation to their test results, 2) potential gaps and disparities in family results communication and testing use by relatives, and 3) use of and barriers to genetic testing reported by relatives of patients who reported a pathogenic variant.

Improving Our Understanding of Breast Cancer Mortality Disparities through Recurrence: A Multi-Level Approach among Women in Georgia - Role: Co-Investigator

The proposed study will advance our understanding of multi-level drivers of demographic disparities in recurrence and breast cancer-specific mortality, and facilitate prioritization of intervention targets.

Racial Disparity in Diagnostic Evaluation of Uterine CancerRacial Disparity in Diagnostic Evaluation of Uterine Cancer - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The overarching objective of this project is to reduce racial disparity in the early diagnosis of uterine cancer by systematically examining patients' diagnostic pathway and identifying barriers to early diagnosis in black women

Risk stratified survivorship care pathways for early-onset colorectal cancer - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The overall goal of the proposed study is to develop stratified survivorship care pathways for patients with early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC). The Georgia Cancer Registry (GCR) will participate in early-onset CRC patient identification, cancer recurrence identification, and survey recruitment activities with the hopes of identifying patterns of recurrence among a diverse, population-based sample of patients with early-onset CRC and characterizing surveillance intensity and survivorship care needs among these patients. 

Risk-stratified care for thyroid cancer survivors - Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

Through an individually randomized controlled trial of AYA survivors with low-risk thyroid cancer, melanoma, and testicular cancer, this study proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of a tailored post-treatment mobile optimized psychosocial support tool.

Examining the Impact of Structural Racism on African American Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Mutational Signatures and Outcomes -  Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The proposed investigation aims to examine the impact of structural racism on African American non-small cell lung cancer mutational signatures and outcomes.  We aim to determine the extent to which exposure to structural racism over time is linked with differences in NSCLC tumor evolution by characterizing the types of mutations, the order of their acquisition, and the activity of mutational processes.

Personalizing genetic test results management and outcomes after diagnosis of cancer: The Georgia-California SEER Genelink Study -  Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to examine whether germline genetic testing and cancer therapy are well-personalized across adult cancers, and to examine the association of germline pathogenic variants with mortality across adult cancer diagnoses.

Identifying factors associated with prostate cancer progression and survival in African American men: The RESPOND Cohort-  Role: Subcontract PI / Co-Investigator

The goal of this project is to leverage the RESPOND recruitment infrastructure and research expertise to update comorbidities, lifestyle behaviors, experience of stress, access to care, and neighborhood environmental data, as well as to obtain information on PCa oncologic outcomes including disease progression/recurrence (P/R) and mortality.

Improving measurement of cancer registry completeness - Role: Co-Investigator

The goal of this study is to develop new methods to estimate cancer registry completeness that will address known shortcomings and improve the rigor, reproducibility, and transparency of the measurement of cancer registry completeness

Innovative Examples of Registry Involvement of Surveillance System Enhancement

Machine Learning

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program is collaborating with the Department of Energy (DOE) on a 5-year pilot project that focuses on the use of high-performance computing to support cancer surveillance. One part of the NCI-DOE Collaboration applies advanced computational capabilities and deep learning methods to population-based cancer data to understand the impact of new diagnostics, treatments, and other factors affecting patient outcomes.  The Georgia SEER Registry is an integral part of this important work.

Precision Cancer Surveillance

In an effort to adapt our cancer registry infrastructure to more fully inform national policy and most effectively meet today’s research needs, the NCI SEER Program seeks to capture clinically important data through a collaboration with commercial genomic and genetic testing companies. These companies are an integral part of cancer patient care and provide complex data that can help classify patient’s risk, guide treatment options, inform prognosis and predict response to specific therapies.  The Georgia SEER Registry has led work in this area through developing a sustainable and scaleable infrastructure for these linkages.    

Enhanced Treatment Data

The Georgia SEER Registry is leading work to enhance NCI SEER data with claims through public health reporting.  A first-of-its-kind pharmacy data linkage with the Georgia registry was a step toward utilizing public health reporting to ensure the completeness and accuracy of cancer surveillance data in registres and enchance the surveillance infrastructure through longitudinal data collection that supports the ability to examine cancer treatment patterns and adherence over time.  Numerous other similar linkages are underway. 

View My Complete List of Published Work at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/18y8r6aFdefkr/bibliography/public/