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MET-PAAM: Elucidating the Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Progression in Metastatic Prostate Cancer among Men of African Ancestry

Principal Investigators:
Franklin Huang, MD, PhD (University of California, San Francisco; San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center)
Elisabeth Heath, MD (Karmanos Cancer Institute; Wayne State University)
Clayton Yates, PhD (Tuskegee University)

Co-Investigators: Hala Borno, MD (University of California, San Francisco), Matthew Cooperberg, MD, MPH (San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center; University of California, San Francisco), Nancy Greenland, MD, PhD (San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center; University of California, San Francisco), Felix Feng, MD (University of California San Francisco), Thomas Hope, MD (San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center; University of California, San Francisco)

Description: 

  • Significant prostate cancer disparities exist for African American (AA) patients, who have a higher overall incidence, earlier age of onset, increased proportion of clinically advanced disease, and increased mortality from prostate cancer compared to European American (EA) patients, even after adjusting for social factors. This suggests that other factors, including differences in tumor biology by race/ethnicity/ancestry may contribute to disparities. Understanding the factors that contribute to prostate cancer disparities in AA patients is of critical importance.
  • Franklin Huang and team are investigating the genomic and molecular differences that may contribute to prostate cancer disparities in AA patients, and are deploying novel interventions to sustainably improve diversity and inclusion in genomic research.
  • The team will identify genomic alterations among AA patients vs. EA patients with metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) and castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) disease states.
  • The team will develop and test an online tool that delivers health information and education on tumor genomic testing as a pre-test counseling tool, to improve recruitment of AA patients with metastatic prostate cancer to genomic research studies.
  • The team will also develop and expand a high-impact, reproducible training program for underrepresented minority trainees in computational genomics and prostate cancer disparities.
  • If successful, this project will identify unique tumor biology in AA patients that may lead to improved precision medicine treatment approaches, as well as improve recruitment of AA patients to prostate cancer clinical trials, and increase the numbers of underrepresented minority trainees in the computational prostate cancer disparities research field.

What this means to patients: African American (AA) patients experience significant disparities in prostate cancer diagnosis and outcomes compared with European American (EA) patients. Dr. Huang and team will map the landscape of genomic alterations in AA prostate cancers, which will enable new precision medicine approaches to be developed for AA patients. The team will also create a digital health tool that will increase ethnic and racial diversity in prostate cancer clinical trials, and develop a training program to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities in the computational prostate cancer disparities research field.