Racial and social contextual factors in relation to epigenome and bladder cancer outcome.

CURED PILOT Project 2 Summary This proposal entails strengthening the efforts between Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC) at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and Texas Southern University (TSU) to establish the BCM-TSU P20 Collaborative Union for Cancer Research and Educational Development (CURED). This collaboration builds upon complementary research and expertise in cancer health outcomes at DLDCCC/BCM and TSU, cancer drug discovery and pharmacokinetics at TSU, robust patient and community- focused outreach and engagement, and allowance of shared resources and ongoing joint endeavors with both institutions. The proposal for BCM-TSU P20 CURED includes the Center of Excellence for Housing and Community Development Policy Research (CEHCDPR), a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Center of Excellence, at TSU as a member of the research team. Faculty with CEHCDPR will partner with faculty from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at BCM to study the associations between the non-medical drivers of health and bladder cancer to understand the impact on outcomes including disease progression, in populations with known worse outcomes. CEHCDPR will develop an interviewer-administered survey that will include questions about socioeconomic characteristics, smoking history, health care access, and residential and workplace history. BCM will administer the survey to consenting bladder cancer patients. Based on survey responses, CEHCDPR will use Geographic Information Systems software to geolocate each patient’s historical residential location. CEHCDPR will compile data layers from existing sources, including US Census and US EPA, on the socioeconomic and environmental conditions of the patient’s residential neighborhoods. Concurrently, BCM will run DNA testing of tissue samples from the patients who completed the survey. The CEHCDPR and BCM datasets will be combined and CEHCDPR will analyze the data to evaluate the association between non-medical drivers of health and the cancer DNA data.