Texas C-Step

What is Texas C-STEP?

The Texas Cancer Screening, Training, Education and Prevention Program, or Texas C-STEP, is led through the Texas A&M Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine’s Department of Primary Care and Rural Medicine in collaboration with the School of Public Health, Southwest Rural Health Research Center and College of Nursing. Texas C-STEP provides critical safety-net services, such as cancer screenings and certain advanced diagnostics, to uninsured, underserved and low-income Texans through the Texas A&M Health Family Care Clinic.

Texas C-STEP is funded by grants from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). These grants provide much needed access to breast, cervical, colorectal, and liver cancer screenings, while also providing training opportunities for resident physicians and nursing students. The program serves as a state and nationwide model for expanding cancer screening services, such as colonoscopy, into the family practice setting. Funding for this prevention and screening project has dramatically increased the availability of various cancer screenings for safety-net patients, while concurrently educating the future of healthcare through resident physician and nursing student hands-on training.

Additinally, numerous community health workers (CHWs) provide culturally-appropriate outreach, education and navigation services to the patients who receive cancer screenings at the Texas A&M Health Family Care clinic.