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“Cancer is the leading cause of death in most Asian American ethnic groups, a fact that has been understudied for years,” said Zul Surani, associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity at Cedars-Sinai. “Because of our continual work to build partnerships in the community, Cedars-Sinai is well positioned to contribute to this incredibly important undertaking.”
Cedars-Sinai is the largest single center enrolling participants into the national effort, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute and will include 20,000 people over the next four years. Asian Americans ages 30-75 who have not been diagnosed with cancer are eligible to participate.
“This study will look at traditional cancer risk factors such as lifestyle and environmental exposures, but it will also examine the effects of bias and discrimination on cancer risk,” said Robert W. Haile, DrPH, MPH, associate director of Population Sciences at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and director of the Cancer Research Center for Health Equity, the Cedars-Sinai Chair in Cancer Population Health Sciences and a co-principal investigator of the study. “This is the first large-scale study to look at these effects on cancer risk in Asian Americans.”
Information will be gathered through online questionnaires, Haile said. Participants will not need to visit Cedars-Sinai in person to take part in the study, though staff fluent in multiple languages will be available to assist participants who prefer to complete questionnaires in person or by phone.
As a medical center with access to large Asian American populations and nationally recognized expertise in community outreach and engagement, Cedars-Sinai is charged with enrolling 4,680 participants from various Asian American communities, including Asian Indian, Bangladeshi, Cambodian, Filipino, Korean, Pakistani, Thai and others.
“We will be able to do this quickly because of the infrastructure we have in place,” Surani said. “We are ready to start meeting with trusted community leaders, such as pastors and leaders of community organizations, to disseminate information about the study. They can reach thousands of people at a time.”
The study was motivated by research showing large disparities in cancer rates among various Asian American populations, Haile and Surani said. These include sharp increases in certain cancers: breast cancer in Korean and Filipino women, thyroid cancer across all Asian ethnicities, and lung cancer among Asian American women who have never smoked.
“We don’t know why this is happening, and no one has studied Asian Americans on this scale before,” Haile said. “Most of the studies that exist are small in scale and look at people who have already developed cancer. This is the first study that starts with Asian Americans who don’t have cancer and then follows them over time to see who develops cancer and who does not.”
The plan is to follow these participants for decades into the future, but the first preliminary information about risk factors and demographics could be released at the end of the first year, Haile said.
“Cedars-Sinai Cancer serves one of the most diverse populations anywhere, and a key part of our mission is to bring equity to every aspect of our research and patient care,” said Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer and the PHASE ONE Foundation Distinguished Chair. “Studies such as this one allow Cedars-Sinai Cancer to contribute invaluable insights into the needs of our cancer community.”
This work is a leading effort and part of a broader Cedars-Sinai strategy to engage diverse patients, according to Michael Farkouh, MD, associate dean for Research and Clinical Trials at Cedars-Sinai. Farkouh said the institution is committed to learning more about the diverse patients it serves and finding ways to understand the unique challenges faced by Asian Americans.
“Finding opportunities to serve patients who have historically been underrepresented is a real challenge in clinical research, and one that people often aren’t aware exists,” Farkouh said. “Community engagement is a cornerstone of Cedars-Sinai’s work and building it out even further can help participants feel safe and supported, leading to even greater local and global impact.”
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