Genomics of cancer and pre-cancer conditions in Latin America

This proposal has the overarching aim of advancing our knowledge of cancer origins and progression through the study of patients from Latin America. We will do this through three work packages: 1) To define the molecular architecture of types of cancer that are of national relevance in Mexico and Latin America, 2) To investigate the contribution that ethnicity and lifestyle make to the somatic profile of tumours and pre-cancerous liver lesions, and 3) To investigate the dynamics of anti-tumour drug response in Latin American patients. We plan to achieve these aims by focusing on delineating the molecular profile, including genomics and transcriptomics, of two diseases: acral melanoma, the most common type of melanoma in Mexico, and liver cancer and predisposing conditions, which affect about a third of Latin Americans. These projects will be led by a Mexican team in collaboration with national and international partners, and will focus on studying these conditions in Latin American patients. An important component of this proposal is capacity building and training local researchers. We hope that by the end of the award, we will have expanded our knowledge of cancer and predisposing conditions and contributed to alleviating existing disparities in cancer and genomics research.