Patients from the University of Alabama will be included in a study in collaboration with Pfizer's research institution and others.
The Philadelphia cancer hospital and research institution, along with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center in Miami, has entered into a collaboration with Pfizer’s Institute of Translational Equitable Medicine to launch a cancer genomics study.
The study will seek to characterize novel genetic drivers of cancer disparities in African ancestry populations.
The collaboration will leverage the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium, a multi-institutional and transcontinental network of scientists, oncologists and health professionals focused on understanding cancer risk and outcomes among people of African ancestry.
The study, which includes the patients from the University of Alabama, will include cancer patients from Fox Chase Cancer Center, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgia's Augusta University in collaboration with Maryland's Morgan State University, as well as nine international consortium research sites in the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The long-term goal of the study is to create a cancer genome registry of ethnically diverse patients designed to expand existing resources and advance health equity through genomics, molecular epidemiology and social determinants of health research in African ancestry oncology patients.
“This registry will allow us to conduct studies that will add to the limited available data for Blacks, 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 cancer patients,” said Camille Ragin, associate director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Fox Chase and the founder of the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium.
