Health Equity Research Outcomes and Improvement Consortium Prostate Cancer Health Precision Africa1K: Closing the Health Equity Gap Through Rural Community Inclusion

Abstract

Prostate cancer shows significant racial disparity, with men of African ancestry disproportionately impacted. While prostate cancer health disparity studies focus on elucidating the contributing socioeconomic, lifestyle, environmental, biological and underlying genetic factors, genome sequencing is helping to reduce the burden through disease stratification and treatment. Sub-Saharan Africa has, till now, been excluded from these benefits. The new Prostate Cancer Precision Health Africa1K Health Equity Research Outcomes and Improvement Consortium has been tasked with addressing this gap. Initiating efforts in Southern Africa, with the highest globally recorded regional mortality rates, in this review we discuss our earliest observations, with the objective to share knowledge, encourage further inclusivity across Sub-Saharan Africa, while considering challenges and benefits. Most notably, and in contrast to regions of current scientific efforts, African nations not only represent extreme disparities in rural-urban transition, but our early data also suggests that this transition has direct impact on both genetic and nongenetic health determinants, with further translation into tumour genome disparities. Ultimately, we propose from this first-of-its-kind resource, that rural communities provide an unmet opportunity to control for cultural practices, regional movement, genetic ancestry, and environmental exposures to enhance African inclusion in prostate cancer health disparity studies.

Keywords

• prostatic neoplasms
• healthcare disparities
• sub-saharan africa
• rural versus urban communities
• genomic medicine