“We didn’t have an accurate reflection of all of the patients impacted by the disease reflected in the data,” said Nina Steele, assistant professor in UC’s College of Medicine and Cancer Center member.
Black African Americans are 20 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than Non-African Americans. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center identified distinct biological differences in tumors and immune environments between these populations.
Steele led the research alongside Howard Crawford, scientific director of the Henry Ford + Michigan State University Pancreatic Cancer Center. The findings appeared in Cancer Research.
“There had never been a large-scale multiomic effort looking at tens of thousands of biological markers across a diverse cohort of pancreatic cancer patients,” Steele told Spectrum News.
The research team mapped genomic information and discovered that cancer cells from BAA and NAA populations display different molecular signatures.
“The cancer cells make unique RNAs and proteins, so that could be relevant to how individual patients from different groups could respond to targeted therapies like RAS inhibitors,” Steele said.
“The markers upregulated in Black patients likely represent a type of cells typically associated with drug resistance, so this biological difference could play a role in outcomes,” Steele said in the research coverage.
Investigators also examined B cells within the pancreatic tumor microenvironments. These immune cells differ between BAA and NAA populations.
Samples from BAA patients showed B cells that were more abundant and more immunosuppressive. They dampen the body’s natural immune response to fight the cancer.
“This may mean the B cells are helping the cancer cells hide in this patient population,” Steele explained.
“This could help explain why this population is more likely to get the cancer, and why it’s worse when they get it, but more work is needed on pancreas tissues from people that do not have cancer,” Steele added.
The study gives a framework for research into the biological differences and how they affect outcomes.
“The Cancer Center is here to serve everybody, and to find the answers that help all patients,” Steele said.
“The hope is to know more about the characteristics of the cancer cells earlier on. We’re headed toward forecasting, the ability to better predict what will happen to every patient in their journey before it happens,” Steele said.