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DHHS updates pilot design for Merrimack cancer feasibility study; adds blood and toenail sampling
Summary
Whitney Hammond, deputy director for the Division of Public Health Services at DHHS, told the commission that the Merrimack cancer feasibility study has moved to a pilot phase and that Dartmouth has amended its IRB protocol to include at‑home finger‑prick blood and toenail sample collection for enrolled pilot participants.
Whitney Hammond, deputy director for the Division of Public Health Services at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, updated the commission on June 13 on the Merrimack cancer feasibility study. The study’s steering committee completed its regular monthly schedule and the research team is moving to pilot activities designed to test the feasibility of a larger study.
Hammond said the feasibility work has four components: community engagement studios and an online feedback form, cancer‑registry data analysis, a University of New Hampshire feasibility survey, and a Dartmouth pilot study. The cancer‑registry analysis and the UNH survey findings were being finalized and will be included in a final report to DHHS this month.
Hammond said Dartmouth has received almost 3,000 responses to the study eligibility questionnaire but that the submission set contained a high volume of bot activity; after screening, Dartmouth identified at least 40 real respondents who are both interested and eligible for the pilot. “We got almost 3,000 responses to the eligibility questionnaire. And, unfortunately… there’s been a lot of bot activity,” Hammond said.
The Dartmouth pilot will proceed with recruitment and has amended its IRB‑approved protocol to add home self‑collection of finger‑prick blood samples and toenail clippings. Hammond said blood samples will be stored and shipped to Eurofins for PFAS testing and that participants will receive results unless they opt out; toenail samples will be archived for later metal testing.
Hammond described outreach used for recruitment: the Granite State Panel was contacted, DES circulated the flyer to its PFAS list, the flyer was posted at town halls and libraries, distributed at oncology clinics and physician networks, and advertisements ran in local newspapers. Initial recruitment is focused on the pilot’s feasibility aims, including verifying recruitment pathways, consent and sample logistics.
The steering committee will remain available for ad hoc meetings; the pilot’s findings will inform whether a larger, hypothesis‑driven epidemiologic study is feasible and how it should be structured. DHHS said it will continue recruitment and the pilot sampling while preparing the final phase‑3 report.
