Dr. Chandra on the Need for Resources to Evaluate Racial Disparities in Prostate Cancer

Dhyan Chandra, PhD, associate professor of oncology, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, member, PhD Program in Cancer Sciences, Experimental Therapeutics Track, member, Developmental Therapeutics of Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant Program, member, Breast, Lung, Genitourinary, and Gastrointestinal Translational Research Groups, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the need for resources to evaluate racial disparities in prostate cancer.

There is growing interest in combatting racial disparities in prostate cancer; however, resources for research are limited, Chandra explains. If more resources were available to researchers, preclinical findings that have emerged from laboratories, such as Dr Chandra’s on the relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and response to prostate cancer therapies, could be expanded upon, Chandra says.

Although more resources are available now compared with in the past, significant research is needed to determine some of the racial differences between patients with prostate cancer. Moreover, data from Caucasian patients can inform disparities in all races because the may have similar baseline patient characteristics as other populations, like African Americans, Chandra concludes.