The National Cancer Institute is funding a groundbreaking $12.45 million study to investigate cancer causes in Asian Americans, a historically understudied group in cancer research. This initiative marks the first long-term study of its kind, aiming to diagnose cancer causes in this population.
Led by researchers from UC San Francisco and UC Irvine, the study seeks to address significant gaps in understanding cancer patterns among Asian Americans. Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH, from UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, emphasized the importance of this research, stating, “The fact there’s been so little funded research in the cancer etiology of Asian Americans continues to perpetuate the sense that the cancer burden in these populations is very low.”
The study aims to explore various cancer trends in Asian American subgroups, including lung cancer in non-smoking women, high rates of nasopharyngeal cancer in Chinese Americans, liver cancer in Southeast Asian Americans, and thyroid cancer in Filipino Americans.
Researchers plan to recruit 20,000 participants this year, with an ultimate goal of 50,000. Participants will provide saliva samples and answer lifestyle questions, with interviews conducted remotely to facilitate participation.
Sora Tanjasiri, a public health professor at UC Irvine, highlighted the study’s significance in addressing the lack of data on Asian Americans: “We want this problem to end now. We want to leave a legacy to future researchers so that they do not have to do what we’ve had to do up until now.”
This study represents a crucial step in addressing health disparities and underrepresentation in cancer research for Asian Americans, potentially leading to improved understanding and treatment of cancer in this diverse population.
The study will look at why non-smoking Asian American women are susceptible to lung cancer & at high rates of certain types of cancer on Asian subgroups.
See “First long-term study to look at cancer in Asian Americans” (June 24, 2024)
