African Cancer Genome Cohort to Promote Health Equity Among Patients of African Ancestry: Characterization of Genetic and Molecular Drivers

The goal of this study is to develop a comprehensive characterization of genetic and molecular drivers of breast and prostate cancer in individuals of African ancestry. The study is conducted by the African Caribbean Cancer Consortium (AC3) and involves the recruitment of patients from nine international AC3 research sites in the Bahamas, Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, and Trinidad and Tobago, and the US. The main questions are to: molecularly characterize genomic changes in the African Cancer genomes of the breast and prostate and identify the effects of social determinants of health and lifestyle factors on mutational landscape. Black individuals that have been diagnosed with pathologically confirmed prostate or breast cancer will be included. Detailed social determinants of health survey, blood and archived FFPE tissues will be collected. (Tier 1) All patient tissues will be subject to IHC for receptor status (ER, AR, PR Her2/neu). All patients with available germline DNA from blood will receive genetic screening using a Commercial gene panel testing. (Tier 2) Patient samples with a negative genetic screening will be subject to whole exome sequencing or banked for later RNA or methylation sequencing.