# Are racial disparities in colon cancer due to epigenetic outliers.

> **NIH NIH R21** · TEMPLE UNIV OF THE COMMONWEALTH · 2021 · $222,296

## Abstract

Racial disparities in the incidence and mortality of colon cancer exist, with African Americans being the most
negatively affected group. The disproportionate impact of colon cancer on African Americans could be
attributed to socioeconomic, environmental and genetic factors. Our proposed study will investigate the impact
of epigenetic factors, which are influenced by gene-environment interactions. Our preliminary studies have
identified colon cancer patients with highly disrupted epigenomes, characterized by abnormal site-specific DNA
methylation levels in normal colon mucosa. The frequency of individuals with “Outlier Methylation Phenotype”
(OMP) was found to be increased in African American cancer patients compared to Caucasian cancer patients.
We do not know the effect of OMP status on survival because the number of OMP patients in our preliminary
study is limited. However, it is relatively easy and less invasive to get blood samples from both cancer patients
and healthy individuals, so we plan to expand our preliminary study in this application. The proposed study will
identify OMPs based on methylation levels in blood DNA and will determine whether African Americans colon
cancer patient have a higher frequency of OMPs compared to Caucasian colon cancer patients, accounting for
racial disparities in incidence and outcome. We will analyze methylation levels at ~850K CpG sites in 70
healthy and 70 colon cancer patients from each race. Furthermore, the impact of OMP status on survival and
epigenetic aging, using race-specific epigenetic clocks will also be evaluated. The latter will enable us to study
whether or not age-related CpGs are more disrupted in OMPs compared to non-OMPs. We anticipate that our
study will provide evidence of an epigenetic basis for racial disparities in colon cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10304449
- **Project number:** 1R21CA264213-01
- **Recipient organization:** TEMPLE UNIV OF THE COMMONWEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** Jayashri Ghosh
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $222,296
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-07-16 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10304449

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10304449, Are racial disparities in colon cancer due to epigenetic outliers. (1R21CA264213-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10304449. Licensed CC0.

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