Attachment D Email Invitation for PAR-Funded CEDCD

Dear Dr. [Investigator],

We are contacting you to invite you to participate in a new and exciting project sponsored by the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program (EGRP) of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.

The EGRP is establishing a new resource for investigators, the Cancer Epidemiology Descriptive Cohort Database (CEDCD) [website URL]. To participate in this project, we are asking you to provide descriptive data of the [FULL COHORT NAME]. The goal of this publically available and searchable database is to facilitate collaborative research efforts among cancer epidemiology cohorts and interested investigators. It is our hope that the CEDCD will increase transparency and maximize the dissemination of information about cohorts studying cancer and other outcomes.

In accordance to terms of agreement for PAR-11-167, “Core Infrastructure and Methodological Research for Cancer Epidemiology Cohorts (UM1)”, funded cohorts have committed to provide information including descriptive cohort characteristics, study protocols, basic counts of participants with various characteristics such as biospecimen availability and study variable definitions, as well as any available questionnaire and tools developed by the cohort. 

The CEDCD database will contain descriptive information that will be updated annually after the initial data collection. It will not contain any participant-level data. For cohorts that are members of the NCI Cohort Consortium, this request will replace the annual request for similar data gathered to assess the Cohort Consortium resources.

Attached to this email are three items:

1. Approval Form

2. Cohorts Descriptive Database Collection Form*

3. CEDCD Biospecimen and Cancer Count Information Spreadsheet

We would greatly appreciate your taking the time to complete these three documents and returning them by [30 day deadline]. Please email all items to the CEDCD Helpdesk at Westat (cedcdhelpdesk@westat.com), our contractor who will be collecting the information and populating the database. Please contact the CEDCD Helpdesk if you have any questions. Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

The EGRP Cohort Database Committee

Daniela Seminara, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Senior Scientist and Cohort and Consortia Coordination Team Lead

seminard@mail.nih.gov

Gabriel Lai, Ph.D.

Program Director, Cohort and Consortia Team, Office of the Associate Director

laigy@mail.nih.gov

Joanne Watters Elena, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Program Director, Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Branch

elenajw@mail.nih.gov

Chinonye (Nonye) Harvey, M.P.H.

Public Health Advisor, Office of the Associate Director

harveyn@mail.nih.gov

Scott Rogers, M.P.H.

Public Health Advisor, Office of the Associate Director

rogerssc@mail.nih.gov

*NOTE: Information already available to NCI will be pre-filled