Two female researchers aim to ‘move the needle’ in cancer disparities in Black populations
Key takeaways:
- Black populations have been underrepresented in cancer research for decades.
- The consortium is a launching pad for individual sites to have resources and data on their individual populations.
Sophia George, PhD, and Camille Ragin, PhD, in collaboration with Pfizer’s Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine are working to identify and study novel genetic, molecular and social determinants of cancer across African ancestry populations.
The research will include patients with breast and prostate cancers receiving care across Fox Chase Cancer Center, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the University of Alabama, Augusta University in collaboration with Morgan State University, as well as 10 international African Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) sites in the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia and Trinidad and Tobago.
“People of African ancestry disproportionately develop aggressive high-grade cancers, particularly in breast and prostate tissues, and the underlying driving factors are not well understood,” George, associate director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said in a press release.
We want to enable African and Caribbean researchers to ask questions collaboratively across the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean so that we can lead projects that affect our populations, George, also coleader of the AC3 Women’s Cancer Working Group, added in the release.
“This registry will allow us to conduct studies that will add to the limited available data for Black patients, including genetics, genomics and gene-environment interaction studies that will help to fill specific knowledge gaps in the literature addressing aggressive disease in African ancestry [patients with cancer],” Ragin, associate director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Fox Chase Cancer Center and coleader and founder of AC3, said in the release.
George and Ragin spoke with Healio about what prompted this work, what they aim to study, the potential implications and their ultimate hope for what the research will glean.
Healio: What prompted this work, and why is it so important to address?
Ragin: From a general perspective, the reason for doing this work rests upon the fact that Black populations have been underrepresented in cancer research for decades. From our perspective, what has been done or had been done in the past was not sufficient to move the needle in addressing the disparities that impact these populations.
From a personal perspective and specific to this particular project, it rests upon the establishment of the AC3 and the framework that we have established to promote collaborations across different populations of African ancestry. One of our goals is to be able to collaboratively address cancer in our different contexts. That is the motivation for doing this work for me personally. Our population has been understudied for a long time, and it is about time to get the job done.
Healio: What is being studied, and what have you found so far?
George: This research is exciting because there is equality in who is participating, leading and at the center of it. The work that we have done leading up to this has focused on studying the genetics of breast and prostate cancers in these diverse populations of people of African ancestry.
What we found previously from our own work is that there are differences in genetic predisposition to breast cancer in Caribbean populations. We also found from looking at other diseases, such as head and neck cancer, that there were mutations in the genome that were different across Black and white European populations, as well as people of mixed backgrounds, and that link was associated with outcome. That work allowed us to build the current study to ask more broadly in the context of breast and prostate cancers — what are the genetic drivers from the germline perspective, and what is happening in the tumor of breast and prostate cancers? These two cancer types are in excess in every country that we are studying, and even in the U.S., Black people or people of African ancestry have poor outcomes and developing the most aggressive forms of the diseases. These populations also develop these diseases at a younger age on average than other groups.
Ragin: Building on the foundation of what Dr. George has already described, this study builds resources and data within each of the individual sites within the different countries that will allow investigators to have the opportunity to answer additional questions beyond what we originally designed in terms of the primary objectives for this particular study. It is an opportunity to answer these important genetic questions, but it’s also a launching pad for the individual sites to have the resources and the data available on their populations to be able to answer other important questions in their local context.
Healio: What are the potential overall implications of this work?
Ragin: For the most part, the initial findings that we will generate from this study will help to inform clinicians in terms of the nature of the cancers that exist or are diagnosed within their local settings. The findings may also inform treatment approaches based on the genetic mutations or variants that may be discovered in this population. Screening practices within the country will also be impacted, so that they can better target individuals for prevention. We will also have the opportunity to answer questions beyond genetics, such as questions related to social determinants of health. The research will allow investigators as well as local health officials to use the data to inform other types of interventions that could promote prevention or early detection of disease.
Healio: What is the anticipated timeline for this work?
George: We have been doing this work for a long time and received current funding to be a first push in this research space. We anticipate, without a doubt, that this work will continue, and it will go beyond breast and prostate cancers. Our collaborators and our partners in different countries, including the U.S., ask questions that are unique to their population and unique to their environment that’s independent of the initial big question but will contribute to understanding of treatment outcomes, tumor biology, etc. This is the beginning of another phase of research. We are in the middle of a lot of important work to be done and to come.
Ragin: There is no time frame for this work because there is so much to be done. For this particular study, we should be able to start providing results of the work within the next year or 2 years, but that is just the beginning. This consortium will inform us about many things, but it will also allow us to set the stage for even more things that need to be accomplished. This work will continue because we must dig much deeper. This is just the beginning.
Healio: Is there anything else that either of you would like to mention?
George: We want to acknowledge that we are speaking on behalf of a larger team and want to acknowledge our collaborators and partners in the different countries. In addition, we want to recognize our partners who have helped facilitate this work, including national laboratories and laboratory systems, as well as the patients with breast and prostate cancers who are willingly participating in our work.
For more information:
Sophia George, PhD, can be reached at sophia.george@med.miami.edu.
Camille Ragin, PhD, can be reached at camille.ragin@fccc.edu.
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