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Breast Cancer: Why African-American Women are at Greater Risk
M
orehouse School
of Medicine’s lat-
est
research
explains why African-
American women are at
greater risk of developing
more aggressive and diffi-
cult-to-treat forms of breast
cancer.
Conducted by
Veena N. Rao, Ph.D., co-
director of the Cancer
Biology Program at the
Morehouse School of
Medicine, the research pro-
vides the empirical evidence
for what many long thought
to be true.
“Morehouse School of
Medicine focuses our
research on signature areas
that
disproportionately
affect minority communities
including cardiometabolic
diseases, HIV/AIDS, neuro-
logical disorders and can-
cer,” said Valerie
Montgomery Rice,
M.D., dean and
executive vice pres-
ident of Morehouse
School
of
Medicine.
“Dr.
Rao’s discovery is
in line with our
mission to better
understand health
inequities
and
developing a cure.”
While
white
women are slightly
more likely to get
breast
cancer,
African-American
women are more
likely to develop aggressive
breast cancers with lesser-
known treatments and more
likely to die from the dis-
ease, according to the
American Cancer Society.
Breast cancer is the second
most common cause of can-
cer-related death among
African-American women.
The American Cancer
Society estimated more than
6,000 African-American
women will die of breast
in Volume 226, Issue 12, of
the Journal of Cellular
Physiology.
Her study
could lead to the discovery
of novel biomarkers that can
predict disease progression
and
validate
the
increased risk for
African-American
women in developing
these aggressive breast
cancers.
Rao’s research find-
ings reveal why young
African-American
women with triple
negative breast can-
cers who have cyto-
plasmic mislocaliza-
tion of BRCA1 pro-
teins often develop
BRCA1-associated
hereditary and spo-
radic breast cancers.
The function of the
BRCA genes is to repair cell
damage and keep breast
cells growing normally. But
when these genes contain
abnormalities or mutations
that are passed from genera-
tion to generation, the genes
do not function normally
New Research from
Morehouse School of
Medicine Shows Why
African-American
Women May Be At
Greater Risk for
Aggressive Breast
Cancer
cancer in 2011.
Rao is professor and co-
director of the Cancer
Biology Program, in the
department of obstetrics and
gynecology at Morehouse
School of Medicine and her
latest research is published
We honor the many
accomplishments of
African Americans.
and breast cancer risk
increases.
Following the discovery
of the breast cancer gene in
1994, researchers have
come a long way in unlock-
ing how various forms of
breast cancer develop and
creating targeted treatment
therapies. Rao has spear-
headed numerous break-
throughs in breast cancer
research including the iden-
tification of short form
BRCA1 proteins known as
BRCA1a and BRCA1b –
which are expressed at
reduced levels in breast and
ovarian cancers. Her team
was the first to show mere
down regulation of expres-
sion of BRCA1 in normal
cells results in cancer,
BRCA1 nuclear cytoplasm
shuttling is a regulated
process, BRCA1a induces
cell death in breast cancer
cells and the first to intro-
duce BRCA1a into triple
negative breast cancer by
gene therapy and success-
fully block tumor develop-
ment in mice. Since she
began her lab work in 1994,
Rao has received four
patents for her research
findings.
“We are showing for the
first time that the exclusive
non-nuclear distribution of
mutant
BRCA1
and
BRCA1a proteins cause
deregulated Ubc9 resulting
in breast cancer” said Rao.
“BRCA1 serves as a master
switch which, by turning off
or on Ubc9 binding, con-
trols estrogen receptor
activity and cell growth.
This discovery will change
the current understanding of
how BRCA1 functions as a
Dr. Veena Rao’s latest study
provides research to further
explain minority cancer health
disparities
tumor suppressor by bring-
ing in novel concepts and
new directions.”
Other researchers partici-
pating in this study include
Shyam P. Reddy, Ph.D.,
professor and co-director of
the
Cancer
Biology
Program and Georgia
Cancer
Coalition
Distinguished
Cancer
Scholar; Qin Yulong, M.D.,
PhD; Jiang Xu, M.D.,
Kartik
Aysola,
B.S;
Nurjahan Begum, M.D.,
PhD; and Yuli Chai, M.D.,
William E. Grizzle, M.D.,
and Edward E. Partridge,
M.D., director of the
Comprehensive
Cancer
See rISk on page 11
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Page 10 The Portland and Seattle Skanner September 5, 2011