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The influence of race and ethnicity on the biology of cancer

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 12, pages 648–653 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

It is becoming clear that some of the differences in cancer risk, incidence and survival among people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds can be attributed to biological factors. However, identifying these factors and exploiting them to help eliminate cancer disparities has proved challenging. With this in mind, we asked four scientists for their opinions on the most crucial advances, as well as the challenges and what the future holds for this important emerging area of research.

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Acknowledgements

B.E.H. is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants CA148537, CA136792 and CA054281. N.H.L. is supported by the NIH grants CA120316 and DK056108. V.S. apologizes in advance to the authors of articles that were not cited owing to reference limitations. H.S. is funded by the National Key Basic Research Program Grant (2011CB503805) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30972541 and 30901233), NIH grant (U19 CA148127) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brian E. Henderson is at The Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, California 90033-0804, USA.,

    Brian E. Henderson

  2. Department of Pharmacology & Physiology, Norman H. Lee is at The George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC, 2300 I Street Northwest, Ross Hall, Washington, DC 20037, USA.,

    Norman H. Lee

  3. Victoria Seewaldt is at The Department of Medicine, Duke University, BOX 2628, Room 221A MSRB, DUMC, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.,

    Victoria Seewaldt

  4. Hongbing Shen is at The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Lab for Modern Toxicology, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, 140 Hanzhong Rd., Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China; and is also at The Section of Clinical Epidemiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.,

    Hongbing Shen

  5. and is also at The Section of Clinical Epidemiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Cancer Biomarkers, Prevention and Treatment, Cancer Center, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, Jiangsu, China.,

    Hongbing Shen

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  1. Brian E. Henderson
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Correspondence to Brian E. Henderson, Norman H. Lee, Victoria Seewaldt or Hongbing Shen.

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Henderson, B., Lee, N., Seewaldt, V. et al. The influence of race and ethnicity on the biology of cancer. Nat Rev Cancer 12, 648–653 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3341

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