Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Cancer Research
Nadya Ali - Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine
Co-Author(s): Latrice Landry, Harvard Medical School, MA
Minorities suffer more disproportionately from many diseases, including cancer. However, despite the disease burden minorities experience limited access to targeted therapies and often have lower participation in research and clinical trials. The lack of inclusion in clinical trials and research is important as it represents an absence of certain population groups from the research and knowledge that produces targeted therapies. Profile- is a joint venture between the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The study aims to identify and characterize genetic alterations in tumors potentially leading to the targeted therapies customized for individual tumors and patients. Each patient who comes to Dana Farber Cancer Institute has the opportunity to have their tumor sequenced. To date over 4000 tumors have been sequenced. The data resulting from these sequenced tumors could provide valuable insight as to the molecular profile of tumors of different types and different stages, which could advance diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer. Our goal is to assess the use of molecular diagnostics in minorities in the Profile study as compared to whites. Additionally, we will compare the molecular profiles between population groups. This research has the capability of not only assessing the nation’s most comprehensive personalized medicine development and its relevance to differences in outcomes by race, it also provides medicine the opportunity to identify and therefore work towards eliminating health disparities in cancer.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative
Faculty Advisor: Latrice Landry, Latrice_Landry@hms.harvard.edu
Role: With the guidance and help from my mentor, Dr. Latrice Landry, and other scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, I will be completing this research project which is part of a larger cohort study.