The National Cancer Institute has awarded $12.45 million to lead the first long-term cancer study in ethnically diverse Asian populations in the United States.
By Victoria Colliver Scarlett Gomez, Ph.D., MPH (left) examines cancer rates in the Bay Area. Photo credit: Noah Berger
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco are aiming to lead the first long-term cancer study in the highly diverse but understudied population of Asian Americans. received $12.45 million from the NCI.
Although cancer incidence is increasing and in some cases exceeds rates for other groups, there have been no national longitudinal studies of cancer in the Asian American community. , many unanswered questions remain.
The fact that there is little funded research into the etiology of cancer in Asian Americans perpetuates the perception that the burden of cancer in these populations is very low. ”
Scarlett Lynn Gomez, Ph.D., MPH
For example, researchers have investigated why Asian American women who have never smoked are more likely to develop lung cancer, and why Asian Americans have become the first racial/ethnic group for which cancer is the leading cause of death. I’m trying to understand.
Researchers will also study the increasing incidence of breast cancer, particularly among young Asian American women. Chinese Americans also have a relatively high incidence of nasopharyngeal cancer, a type of head and neck cancer. The same goes for liver cancer in Southeast Asian Americans. Stomach cancer in Koreans and Japanese Americans. and thyroid cancer in Filipino Americans.
Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial and ethnic group in the United States, making up 7% of the population. However, as of 2020, less than 1% of funding from the National Institutes of Health went to research on Asian Americans. A 2016 NCI grant study found little research into the causes of cancer in Asian Americans.
“The fact that there is so little funded research into the etiology of cancer in Asian Americans continues to perpetuate the feeling that the burden of cancer in these populations is very low,” Cancer Control Program said Scarlett Lynn Gomez, Ph.D., MPH, co-leader of the. He is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and one of three co-principal investigators on the study. “NCI recognizing this as a major gap and providing funding to this historic population is an important step forward.”
Dr. Iona Chen, MPH. Scarlett Lynn Gomez, PhD, MPH. and Salma Sharif-Marco, Ph.D., MPH, are the three co-principal investigators of the first long-term cancer study in Asian Americans.
Dr. Iona Chen, MPH Dr. Scarlett Lin Gomez, MPH Dr. Salma Sharif Marco, MPH
Photo courtesy of Marco Sanchez
Study seeks participants from all groups of Asian Americans
This grant supports the creation of a national cohort called ASPIRE (ASian American ProspectIve REseach). Gomez, along with co-principal investigators Iona Chen, Ph.D., MPH, and Salma Sharifmarko, Ph.D., MPH, collaborated with UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, Cedars-Sinai, and the University of Hawaii. He will lead this effort. , Temple University, and Jefferson College.
“As the first national cohort to study cancer risk in a diverse community of Asian Americans, this is a historic milestone,” said Howard Koh, former assistant secretary for health, MD, MPH, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. ”. Harvard Kennedy School, a member of ASPIRE’s Scientific Advisory Board, said: “Our community has been waiting for this moment for a lifetime, and we hope they will join us in our call to action by becoming part of ASPIRE. .”
The first cohort will be supported by a national network of partners across approximately 20 academic institutions, 40 community organizations, and two policy groups dedicated to Asian American health. Over the next few years, the company plans to hire 20,000 men and women between the ages of 40 and 75 from all Asian American ethnic groups, with diverse socio-economic levels and lifestyles. They aim to expand this study to at least 50,000 participants.
Recruitment will be focused on specific areas with more than one-third of the Asian American population: California (Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, Sacramento), the New York metropolitan area, including North Jersey, and the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It will be done. The area includes South Jersey. We also plan to recruit researchers nationwide.
A surprising trend that requires continued research
New research shows that cancer patterns among Asian Americans are different from those seen in Asian countries, and anti-Asian discrimination increases health risks for cancers such as smoking and obesity. are. It also affects the extent to which Asian Americans receive cancer screenings and access other types of health care.
“These groups have unique cancer rates, and when data for Asian Americans is aggregated into a single statistic, patterns and trends are lost,” said Chen, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. Ta. “There are no cohort studies that allow us to know what the risk factors are for cancer in a diverse Asian American population.”
