The National Cancer Institute, an agency of the National Institutes of Health, awarded Louisiana State University Health New Orleans and Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center a joint $2 million grant to reduce racial disparities in cancer precision medicine.
The grant, to be awarded over a four-year period, will fund the LSU Health and Moffitt Cancer Center's joint research on cancer precision medicine with an emphasis on underserved minorities. The grant also includes a focus on training students and junior investigators to ethically conduct research on cancer precision medicine.
"Precision medicine is making tremendous advances in tailoring cancer treatment and prevention measures to specific molecular cancer subtypes," said Lucio Miele, MD, PhD, director of the precision medicine program at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and co-principle investigator. Cathy Meade, PhD, is the co-principle investigator from Moffitt Cancer Center.
"However, the patients who are most affected by cancer are often the ones with the least access to precision medicine studies," Dr. Miele continued. "This leaves a huge gap in our understanding of how to plan cancer prevention and care, and risks worsening existing health disparities."