Nathaniel Jones (above) wants to know why Black women have worse outcomes from endometrial cancer, the most common gynecologic cancer in women in the United States, and what can be done to improve their odds. ““We have a large population of Black women who we treat here, and it is difficult knowing that they will have worse outcomes compared with white women receiving the same treatment,” he says
Jones will use a new method to measure DNA damage in the tumors of endometrial cancer patients and determine whether DNA repair defects can predict how patients will respond to immunotherapy. He also wants to measure the immune response to therapy among Black women with various percentages of African American genetic makeup.
“The study will strive to more completely understand the relationship between DNA damage levels, therapeutic response and disease outcomes for patients stratified by the genetic definition of race,” he said. “We intend to provide a novel perspective on uterine cancer health disparities and create models for personalized medicine for minority populations.”
See “Research aims to improve outlook for Black women with endometrial cancer” by Carol McPhail on the USA Health website (December 14, 2020)
