Over the past few years, there has been an increasing realization that we need a more equal, diverse and inclusive culture for truly successful cancer research to happen. Moreover, that research itself must be relevant to and engage a diverse patient population to achieve effective cancer care. Now is the time for action, so how do we attract and retain more diverse researchers to the cancer community, and how do we begin to close the gap in cancer disparities. We asked five Black cancer researchers and clinicians to present their ideas for bringing about positive change.
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Acknowledgements
K.C.A.-B. acknowledges H. Robinson for personal support. R.C.W.C. acknowledges F. T. Odedina, J. Kinney, P. Cummins and K. de Medeiros for their mentorship and guidance. L.M.C. acknowledges A. Cook and D. Reio for personal support; her mentors (C. Lamartiniere, D. Welch and C. Lynch) and women mentors (T. Kielian, M. Lindsey and J. Black) for support and advice; and women PIs (A. Weeraratna, L. Rucks, M. Davis and L. Coussens) for inspiration.
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O.D.B. is employed by Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian and funded by the NIH Loan Repayment Program (LRP), Ann & Weston Hicks fund and Cornell Center for Health Equity. K.C.A-B., R.C.W.C., L.M.C. and C.T. declare no competing interests.
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Related links
Black in Cancer: blackincancer.com
National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/
Project PINK BLUE: http://www.projectpinkblue.org/
STEMNoire: STEMNoire.org
The contributors
Kilan C. Ashad-Bishop (she/her) is Principal Scientist for Cancer Risk Factors and Screening Research in the Department of Surveillance and Health Equity Science at the American Cancer Society. She is a proud alumna of Morgan State University, where she earned her bachelor of science in biology, and the University of Miami, where she earned her PhD in cancer biology. Kilan focuses her transdisciplinary research and service portfolio on the influence of social and environmental factors on cancer disparities. In 2019, she co-founded IdentifySTEM, Inc. and its signature programme, STEMNoire, which convenes Black women and non-binary people in STEM to foster community, facilitate collaboration, and enhance personal and professional outcomes.
Onyinye Balogun is an assistant professor of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine specializing in the treatment of breast and gynaecological malignancies. She has conducted and published breast cancer research in novel therapeutics for triple-negative breast cancer and brain metastases. She is also engaged in gynaecological cancer research, as well as global health activities, with a focus on improving the delivery of radiation therapy in low-income and middle-income countries.
Runcie C. W. Chidebe is an oncology researcher, patient advocate and global health innovator and the founder/executive director of Project PINK BLUE. He supports people battling cancer, drives policy advocacies and founded the first oncology patient navigation in Nigeria. He is currently a doctoral student of social gerontology in the Department of Sociology and Gerontology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA. His research interests are in aging and cancer, metastatic cancer, sexual health and Black patients, and global disparities in clinical trials. He is a leading voice advocating for global cancer equity and believes that geography should not determine whether patients with cancer live or die.
Leah M. Cook is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She earned her PhD in molecular and cellular pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she focused on breast cancer metastasis suppressor proteins in metastasis mouse models. She completed her postdoctoral training at Moffitt Cancer Center where she examined mechanisms of bone metastatic prostate cancer. Her laboratory is investigating novel neutrophil interactions that contribute to metastatic prostate cancer growth in bone. Her goal is to identify novel immunotherapeutic targets for treating and curing metastatic cancer.
Christina Towers is an assistant professor at The Salk Institute. Her work is focused on understanding the complex roles of the cellular recycling process, autophagy, in cancer. She discovered that although many cancer cells rely on autophagy for survival, some can employ novel mechanisms to circumvent autophagy inhibition. She launched her independent research programme in 2021 in which her group is developing new tools to understand canonical and non-canonical mechanisms of autophagy. Her work leverages fundamental cell biology discoveries to predict and prevent acquired resistance in pancreatic and lung cancer.
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Ashad-Bishop, K.C., Balogun, O.D., Chidebe, R.C.W. et al. Black voices in cancer research and oncology. Nat Rev Cancer 24, 235–239 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-023-00662-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-023-00662-7
