Hawaiʻi Translational Cancer Research Program

University Of Hawaii At Manoa, Honolulu HI

Investigators

Abstract

At the root of cancer health differences are variations that exist in the biological, behavioral, area-level, and environmental characteristics of individuals and populations. Hawaiʻi offers exceptional opportunities for etiologic and translational research due to its uniquely heterogeneous population with differing cancer burdens and its high-quality health care and cancer registration. The University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center has a successful track record of leveraging Hawaiʻi's people to study population differences in cancer risk and outcomes. It has built an outward-facing infrastructure to translate these findings into major biological discoveries and clinical innovations that would help to alleviate high cancer risk in subpopulations in the US. We are establishing a SPORE program to conduct translational research focusing on Asians Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), the fastest growing US population group, to initially address three cancers of particularly high relevance. Project 2 will address the excess lung cancer burden experienced by Native Hawaiians by developing a risk-based and population-informed lung cancer screening strategy, and investigate the mutation, methylation and transcriptomic profiles of lung squamous cell and small cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas that contribute to the unexplained poor survival in this native population. Project 3 will address the very high breast cancer burden of Native Hawaiians and the rising rates in Asian Americans by testing the adequacy of current radiomic risk prediction algorithms for predicting breast cancer in these populations and by investigating related molecular and histopathologic features of breast tumor environment which may be related to visceral adiposity and have prognostic significance. We will also establish: 1) an Administrative Core with strategic planning, advisory and evaluation components; 2) an Outreach and Recruitment Core (ORC) facilitating studies among Hawaiʻi’s people; 3) a centralized biorepository of paired fresh-frozen tumor and blood samples, as well as archival tumor blocks (Pathology & Biospecimen Core); 4) a Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Core; 5) a Developmental Research Program to fund innovative pilot studies and a Career Enhancement Program to support promising investigators new to translational research; and 6) new collaborations, with other institutions for the further translation of our findings. The successful completion of this grant will significantly advance our ability to build a strong program aimed at reducing the high burden of liver, lung and breast cancers in AANHPI and to conduct other innovative translational research that will benefit Hawaiʻi, the Pacific region and the rest of the US.