Study explores race differences of lung cancer riskPosted in Articles, Health/Medicine/Genetics, Media Archive, United States on 2013-08-02 02:04Z by Steven |
Study explores race differences of lung cancer risk
Vanderbilt University Medical Center Reporter
2013-08-01
Vanderbilt research scientist Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., MPH, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health Academic Career Award to investigate some of the genetic secrets behind a greater risk of lung cancer among African-Americans compared with other racial and ethnic groups.
Aldrich, assistant professor of Thoracic Surgery and Epidemiology, will study the genetic ancestry of African-Americans to identify the genetic and environmental risk factors associated with a higher incidence of lung cancer in this population.
To date, this represents the largest study of African-Americans with lung cancer.
Though smoking is certainly a well-documented risk factor for lung cancer, it does not explain the racial disparity in lung cancer risk. Therefore, Aldrich believes a genetic difference may lie at the root of the problem…
…This five-year research study will be the largest to examine the genetics of lung cancer in a population whose ancestry is mixed and separated by thousands of years. African-Americans have ancestry in both Africa and Europe, and genetic mapping could identify common key regions that contribute to racial differences in lung cancer incidence…
Read the entire article here.