Bioinformatics Seminar
Time: 11AM
Venue: Online
13 June 2023
Clinical relevance of genome profiling prostate cancer health disparities
Vanessa HayesUniversity of Sydney
Prostate cancer (PCa) is characterized by significant geo-ethnic health disparity. While Australia has the highest incidence rates, after the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest mortality rates, 2.7-fold greater than global averages. Controlling for geography, PCa has the highest ethnic disparity of all cancers in the US. Mortality rates for African Americans double that of men of European ancestry and rising to a 3-fold increase for men <65 years. With no modifiable risk factor, what is driving this disparity is unknown. The Hayes Lab is using whole blood and patient-matched tumour genome profiling to uncover both the genetic and non-genetic contributions to geo-ethnic PCa health disparity using a unique and currently unmet African resource, which allows for direct comparison with European ancestral Australian men through a single technical and computational pipeline. Identifying both inherited common risk to rare pathogenic and acquired novel oncogenic driver variants unique to men of African ancestry, which at least in part explains the ethnic basis to aggressive disease, while through a novel PCa molecular taxonomy, mutational signatures, and microbiota, we provide the first tangible evidence for the contribution of non-genetic forces. Through our unique grass-roots approach, we are demonstrating how African inclusion is critical if we are to understand the etiology of lethal PCa, providing access to extreme genomic and extreme environmental diversity. Identifying the underlying causes of PCa health disparities has significant implications not only for minority inclusion, but for advancing our understanding of the etiology, early detection and ultimately prevention and treatment of lethal PCa for all men globally.