Knowledge about the unique alterations that accumulate in a tumor can be critical to discover novel drugs and predictive markers that can change clinical practice. Unfortunately, the tumor landscape of colorectal tumors among Hispanic/Latinx patients is largely unknown, with no comprehensive studies available yet. Similarly, less is known about the familial mutations that are most common in hereditary colorectal cancer among Hispanic/Latinx patients. This lack of knowledge has direct implications for the ability of new therapies and treatments to translate into outcomes improvements in this minority population. To address this gap of knowledge there is an urgent need to increase participation of Hispanic/Latinx cancer patients in cancer characterization studies.
The COPECC center is a member of the Participant Engagement and Cancer Genome Sequencing (PE-CGS) Network part of the Cancer Moonshot InitiativeSM that is intended to accelerate cancer research. Our goals are:
We are a multidisciplinary team who has been working in cancer health disparities for decades and are passionate about reducing the cancer burden among racial and ethnic minority communities. Our team includes experts in cancer genomics, bioinformatics, medical oncology, cancer epidemiology, genetic counseling, community outreach and engagement, behavioral sciences, biostatistics, and implementation sciences.
Through our center activities we propose to develop an effective and culturally tailored framework for participant engagement of Hispanic patients for genomic studies that leverages on our expertise conducting studies in this community, our strong genomics platform, our successful community outreach initiatives, and through our extensive experience delivering care for one of the largest Hispanic populations in the country.
$18.5 million in funding from the Cancer Moonshot will help researchers at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center close the gap in our understanding of colorectal
President Joe Biden’s efforts to accelerate progress against cancer include an $18.5 million grant to a team of researchers at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
