Abstract A05: Genetic factors associated with racial disparities of liver cancer

Abstract

Abstract Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC]) is a leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. Racial disparities in HCC have been well-known among several racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. The incidence rates (per 100,000/year) for non-Hispanic White (NHW), non-Hispanic Black (NHB), Hispanics (HISP), and Asian/Pacific Islanders (API) are 7.0, 15.7, 11.8, and 18.6, respectively. The 5-year survival rates (%) for the four population groups are 18.2, 15.1, 19.2, and 24.4, respectively. NHWs have the lowest incidence rates, while APIs have the highest 5-year survival rate among the four racial and ethnic groups. Previous studies have indicated that socioeconomic status, in general, is associated with HCC health disparity; however, they alone cannot fully explain the disparity between different racial and ethnic groups. Few studies have investigated the biologic factors that may be associated with the health disparity in HCC. Using RNA-seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we have performed a comprehensive analysis of differentially expressed genes and pathways between Caucasian and Asian American liver cancer patients and identified hundreds of differentially expressed genes. We also identified a handful of genes that are differentially mutated between Caucasian American and Asian American HCC patients using the somatic mutation data from TCGA. We will discuss in details the differentially expressed genes and pathways, and their implications for the HCC health disparity. As far as we know, our study represents the largest-scale study on the biologic factors for HCC health disparity between Caucasian and Asian American liver cancer patients. Note: This abstract was not presented at the conference. Citation Format: Zihan Cui, Zhe Wang, Tingting Zhao, Qingxiang Amy Sang, Jinfeng Zhang. Genetic factors associated with racial disparities of liver cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A05.