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The CAPCI Network: A CAncer Prostate Consortium of India for Conducting Next-Generation Genomic Sequencing Studies
Full text linkThe CAncer Prostate Consortium of India (CAPCI) was established in September 2020 by a group of researchers and clinicians interested in identifying inherited and somatic risk factors that are related to theonset of prostate cancer (PCa). The consortium aims to improve the patient care and treatment in India byexploring and expanding the utility of genomic repositories associated with PCa. These aims are reached by advancing discovery in genome science particular to Indian phenotypes, translating scientific discoveries to improved standard of care. One of the impending goals of the consortium is to combine the data from the west and other sub-population ancestries, and identify common and exclusive risk profiles associated with PCa in Indian scenarios. These findings would additionally allow us to validate in experimental settings to explore the molecular mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of PCa besides understanding new personalized therapeutic regimens
Interventions Addressing Breast Cancer Mammography Screening Barriers in Non-Hispanic Black Women: An Integrative Review
Full text linkBreast cancer disparity in Non-Hispanic Black women is a major concern due to higher breast cancer death rates in this population. This integrative review explores interventions aimed at increasing screening mammography in this population. A literature search was conducted of full-text, peer-reviewed articles published over ten years between 2013-2023 using Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and PubMed. Of the 396 articles identified, nine met the inclusion criteria. The studies identified used various strategies to implement screening interventions in Non-Hispanic Black women that were culturally tailored and considered social determinants of health, barriers to breast cancer screening, engaging community, and patient navigation. These findings suggest that focused interventions should consider the challenges to Non-Hispanic Black women to schedule and complete mammogram screenings. Future research is recommended to conduct interventional studies with Non-Hispanic Black women specifically tailored to meet their needs to promote engagement in the recommended mammography screening guidelines.
 
Lack of Disparities in Pharmacogenomics
No full textBased on personal polymorphism and algorithmic interpretation, pharmacogenomics interventions in healthcare are chosen, directing pharmacotherapies in patients. As a part of precision medicine, pharmacogenomics offers a unique chance to set the bar for treating patients as particular individuals with specific needs. Like with any intervention, the benefit-to-risk ratio needs to be considered. Information gaps and people’s lack of knowledge of pharmacogenomics will always be problems, as will their unfamiliarity with the subject. As there are more genes, there are more potential diseases and environmental factors that could mask the impact of genes. As a result, multigene models in vast populations must always be considered for research. There aren’t many studies that look at how pharmacogenomics affects health disparities. Additional research is needed to assess health differences between ethnic groups and nations and within a single country
Strong Tumor Expression of ALDH1A1 is Associated with Black Race, Metabolic Disorders, and Poor Breast Cancer Outcomes
Full text linkRacial differences in tumor biology may explain worse breast cancer outcomes in Black women relative to White women. This study provides a comparative racial analysis in Black and White women in terms of Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 member A1 (ALDH1A1) expression and its association to clinicopathological features. Expression of ALDH1A1 in both tumor and stromal cells was assessed by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarrays containing 253 breast tumors including 161 tumors from White patients and 92 from Black patients. Relationships to clinicopathological features for strong and moderate to low ALDH1A1 staining were determined using Pearson’s Chi Square and an odds ratio was determined. Survival and recurrence were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves and Mantel Log-Rank tests. Multivariate analysis was conducted using Cox-proportional hazards tests. Black, obese, and diabetic women showed higher staining intensity in both tumor and stromal tissue. Strong tumor staining was associated with Black race, advanced stage, high grade obesity and diabetes. Strong stromal expression was associated with estrogen receptor positivity, and prediabetes/diabetes. Patients with strong tumor ALDH1A1 had shorter recurrence free and overall survival compared to those with moderate to low expression. When stratified by race, Black women with strong tumor ALDH1A1 expression had shorter recurrence free survival compared to White women. Strong tumor ALDH1A1 staining was an independent predictor of poor overall survival in both Black and White women. These findings indicate that ALDH1A1 expression is associated with poor outcomes in breast cancer, particularly in Black women, and provide the first link between tumor ALDH1A1 expression, obesity, and diabetes
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Thyroid Cancer Stratified by Risk Factors: A Literature Review: Thyroid Cancer Health Disparities
No full textIn the United States, thyroid cancer incidence has increased dramatically within the last few decades. Recent research suggests that this incidence along with cancer stage and mortality vary by race/ethnicity, highlighting health disparities in the United States. There are several risk factors for thyroid cancer incidence that may contribute to these disparities. The goal of this literature review is to analyze whether these potential risk factors impact incidence and aggressiveness differently by race/ethnicity, implicating their possible role in influencing thyroid cancer disparities in the United States. Through PubMed searches, we have reviewed recent literature on U.S. populations. We found that chromosomal alterations/non-hereditary conditions, autoimmunity, thyroid nodules, and socioeconomic differences potentially impacted thyroid cancer incidence and aggressiveness by race/ethnicity, whereas sex disparities did not. Six potential risk factors showed some variations by race/ethnicity but either did not specifically examine their relationship to thyroid cancer or did not impact thyroid cancer incidence and aggressiveness. Three other potential risk factors have not yet been studied regarding their influence on thyroid cancer incidence and outcomes for racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Therefore, we identify a critical need for subsequent research to examine these potential risk factors for different racial/ethnic groups and contribute toward our understanding of racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States. We also present several research areas relating to thyroid cancer health disparities that require further study.
 
Race is Related with Increased COVID-19 Infection and Outcomes in Oncology Patients
No full textWe seek to assess racial disparities in oncology patients with COVID19 compared to appropriately matched controls with and without COVID19. All patients treated at the Seidman Cancer Center with a diagnosis of COVID19 and cancer were identified from the electronic medical record using ICD9/ICD10 codes for cancer diagnoses and database of all patients diagnosed with COVID19. Two control groups, cancer patients without COVID19 and patients without cancer but with COVID19, were generated and matched 3:1 on age at date of data extraction, age at cancer diagnosis, and sex to COVID19 positive cancer cases. African Americans (AA) and Whites made up 8.6% vs. 76.9% of the baseline oncologic population without COVID19, respectively. AA representation (41.0%) was significantly increased in cancer patients positive for COVID19 compared to those negative for COVID19 (p<0.001). In the comparison of patients with COVID19 with or without cancer, the proportion of AA cases was greater in the non-oncologic population (41.0% vs. 47.6%, p=0.014). AA are disproportionately affected with COVID19 in oncologic and benign populations. Despite similar rates of adverse outcomes to COVID19 in cancer patients by race, we found a 32.4% increase in the AA proportion compared to those without COVID19. These findings suggest COVID19 prevention policies and future studies should account for racial differences in the oncology population
The Association Between Racial Segregation and Racial Disparities in Clinical Trial Accrual at an NCI Cancer Center
No full textThis quality improvement project examines the relationship between racial segregation in the Stanford Cancer Institute’s (SCI) catchment area and racial disparities in clinical trial accrual using Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis. It also briefly reviews strategies other cancer centers have used to address the effect of segregation on minority patient accrual in their catchment area. 215 studies in the gastrointestinal oncology clinic trials department at the SCI between 2012 –2020 were reviewed to collect data on race, ethnicity, and zip code of all available trial patients. These variables were plotted in the SCI’s catchment area using ArcGIS Online. A total of 848 patients were analyzed. The ethnicities of our trial patients were 61% White (n=514), 25% Asian/Pacific Islander (n=210), 13% Latinx (n=107), 2% Black (n=14), and <1% American Indian (n=3). 79% of Black patients were in non-interventional trials, and GIS analysis showed that 63% (7/11) of Black patients in the Bay Area resided in the East Bay (Contra Costa and Alameda County) – these areas were also associated with high rates of poverty and low access to personal transportation. This analysis showed racial disparities in clinical trial accrual at an NCI CCC and demonstrated how racial segregation has contributed to this disparity using GIS. While the analysis is limited due to a lack of descriptive variables in our database, supplementary data from the U.S. Census demonstrated a positive correlation between racial segregation and economic conditions that preclude minority patient enrollment – higher poverty rates and lack of personal transportation.  
Cancer Health Disparities Drivers with BERTopic Modelling and Pycaret Evaluation
Full text linkThe complex interplay of social, behavioural, lifestyle, environmental, health system, and natural health variables contribute to disparities in cancer treatment across racial and ethnic groups. Consequently, it is necessary to identify the variables contributing to cancer health inequalities and develop strategies to achieve health equality. Pubmed abstract on Cancer health disparities was scraped with a bio.Entrez python package. Preprocessed data with regex and Natural tool kit(NLTK), topic modelling with BERTopic embeddings, and c-TF-IDF to construct dense clusters and analyse top topics linked with Cancer health disparities. Model evaluation with Pycaret coherence score and web app deployment with Streamlit. The results showed that Topic 32 with terms obese, female, male, school, survey, student, post, and discrepancy had the best coherence score of 0.3687. In contrast, topic 8 with terms prevalence, adult, income, high, usage, diabetes, education, elderly, change and low, received the least coherence score of 0.3255. The model classifies each Subject Word score based on the scores, the granular topic concerns and trends related to cancer health disparities, investigates the connection between drivers of cancer health disparities, and evaluates the model with their coherence score values
Characteristics of Incident Liver Cancer Cases in the District of Columbia Metropolitan Area
Full text linkThe District of Columbia (D.C.) has the highest liver cancer incidence in the United States (U.S.), but the reasons for this are not fully known. We examined socio-demographic, clinical and behavioral characteristics of incident liver cancer cases in D.C., Maryland (MD) and Virginia (VA) to identify potential risk factors.We obtained data from D.C., MD and VA cancer registries for individuals diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) between 2013 and 2016. We estimated age-adjusted incidence rates and conducted descriptive analyses stratified by state/territory, sex, stage at diagnosis, and race/ethnicity. 5,928 incidents HCC/ICC cases occurred between 2013-2016. Age-adjusted incidence rates (per 100,000) for HCC/ICC were highest in D.C. (12.2, 95% CI=10.9, 13.5), for males (12.6, 95% CI=12.2, 12.9), and non-Hispanic Blacks (11.3, 95% CI=10.8, 11.8) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (APIs) (10.8, 95% CI=9.7, 11.9). Racial disparities in HCC/ICC incidence were widest in D.C. A substantial proportion of cases were missing data on country of birth and behavioral risk factors. Mean age at diagnosis, marital status, country of birth, insurance status, and alcohol and tobacco use history varied across analytic sub-groups. Non-Hispanic Blacks, APIs and males experience a high burden of liver cancer in the D.C. metropolitan area. There are several socio-demographic disparities by state/territory, sex, and race/ethnicity. More data on country of birth, behavioral risk factors, and comorbidities are urgently needed to understand their contribution to the burden of liver cancer in the D.C. metropolitan area.
Racial differences in prostate tumor microenvironment: implications for disparate clinical outcomes and potential opportunities
Full text linkDisparities in cancer are common among the racial and ethnical minorities in the United States and are of significant social and clinical concern. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed non-cutaneous malignancy in American men and exhibits substantial racial disparities with African American men bearing the highest burden in terms of incidence and mortality. A multitude of factors, including socioeconomic, behavioral, and access to healthcare, have been implicated as the underlying causes of such disparities. More recent data also suggest that there are inherent genetic and biological differences in prostate tumors of patients having distinct racial backgrounds. Tumor microenvironment has tremendous impact on the course of cancer progression and clinical outcome and may also contribute to the racial disparities observed in prostate cancer. A better understanding of critical differences in the tumor microenvironment components will provide newer directions to study the biological causes of prostate cancer health disparities and may identify novel therapeutic targets. This review discusses the findings related to the tumor microenvironment differences between the of African American and Caucasian American prostate cancer patients to suggest their potential significance in prostate cancer disparities