RPCI researcher receives grant to explore link between race and breast cancer

Christine Ambrosone, MD, Chair of Cancer Prevention and Control at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), has received a grant for $165,000 from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to study the possible link between race and the possibility of being diagnosed with aggressive breast cancers.

African-American women are more likely than European-Americans or Asians to be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancers and to have poor survival rates. It is hypothesized that robust immune/inflammatory responses evolved among Africans in response to endemic infectious diseases such as malaria. As a result, over the years the immune system in these women has been programmed to best protect the woman throughout her reproductive years. After that, the immune system becomes hyper-inflammatory, which is related to more aggressive breast cancers among African-American women.

The study will use data and samples from the Women's Circle of Health Study, an on-going case-control study of breast cancer in African-American and European-American women. It is hoped results of this study would open new areas for investigation regarding the basic biology of the relationship between immune factors and aggressive breast cancer.