QBRI study focuses on precision cancer cure at population level

QBRI study focuses on precision cancer cure at population level

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), has published a first-of-its-kind study on population-specific transcriptomic profiles of breast tumours that includes patients from Qatar and highlights the importance of precision medicine in cancer at a population level. Dr Julie Decock, scientist at QBRI’s Translational Cancer and Immunity Centre led the research study with investigators from Sidra Medicine, HBKU’s Qatar Computing Research Institute ( QCRI), Hamad Medical Corporation, and Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, as well as international collaborators from the University of California. The paper titled 'Ancestry-associated transcriptomic profiles of breast cancer in patients of African, Arab, and European ancestry' was published in the Nature partner journal, npj Breast Cancer. The team investigated transcriptomic data from two different breast cancer cohorts in their study; The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) breast cancer cohort and a smaller local dataset from Qatar, to identify molecular differences in cancer-related and microenvironmental features that are distinctive to patients of either European, African, or Arab ancestry. Dr Decock pointed out that in the current era of personalised medicine, large-scale cancer studies have been instrumental in deciphering the pathogenesis and evolution of tumours. However, with the majority of patients in public datasets being of European ancestry, the knowledge gained might not be relevant or accurate for patients of a different ancestry.