Representation of Hispanics with liver cancer in oncology genotype databases.

Abstract

e13721 Background: Hispanic Individuals, constituting the second largest subpopulation in the United States after non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), experience significant ethnic disparities in the incidence and prevalence of liver cancer. Notably, Hispanics bear the highest burden, with 15.1% of liver cancer cases occurring in this group from 2015-2019, surpassing rates in Asian (12.5%), non-Hispanic Black (NHB, 11%), and non-Hispanic White (NHW, 7.5%) individuals. According to the SEER Database, in 2020, there were 15,878 Hispanics, 12,551 NHB and 57,483 NHW individuals living with liver cancer. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive analysis of larger oncology genotype databases encompassing all cancer types to assess the representation of Hispanic individuals with liver cancer. Five databases, including Cancer LivER, NCI GDC Data Portal, cBioPortal & American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Project GENIE, The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) Data Portal, and HCCDB: Integrative Molecular Database of Hepatocellular Carcinoma, were analyzed. Ethnicity data and the number of Hispanic individuals with liver cancer were extracted from each. Results: The databases analyzed revealed significant underrepresentation of Hispanic individuals with liver cancer. NCI GDC Data Portal reported 834 cases, with only 2.5% identified as Hispanic. cBioPortal and AACR Project GENIE's TCGA-LIHC dataset included 377 cases, with 4.8% identified as Hispanic. The ICGC Data Portal encompassed 377 patients, but ethnicity is not available. HCCDB, consisting of 24 HCC datasets, did not include ethnicity information. Cancer LivER, with 115 dataset matrices also lacked ethnicity data. Conclusions: Hispanic Individuals exhibit the highest relative incidence rates of liver cancer among major racial or ethnic groups in the US, yet they are markedly underrepresented in oncology genotype databases, comprising less than 5% of liver cancer patients in those reporting ethnicity. This discrepancy poses a critical challenge to advancing the understanding of liver cancer in the Hispanic population. Addressing the lack of ethnic characteristics and increasing the number of Hispanic cases in these databases is essential for more comprehensive insights into liver cancer within this ethnic group.