# Investigating genetic ancestry influences on oral cavity and laryngeal cancer survival disparities

> **NIH NIH R01** · RESEARCH INST OF FOX CHASE CAN CTR · 2022 · $578,891

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Survival from Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is poor, and a racial disparity between African
Americans (AfAm) and European Americans (EuAm) has been consistent for decades. From 2008-2014, 5-year
relative survival from oral cavity and pharyngeal cancers is reported to be 49.4% among AfAms in contrast to
66.6% among EuAms. Similarly, 5-year relative survival for laryngeal cancer was 51.3% among AfAms in
contrast to 61.8% among EuAms. The literature suggests that poor survival may be related to late-stage
diagnosis that is attributed to lower screening rates, socioeconomic status (SES) and other barriers to care.
However our preliminary data suggest that these factors alone may not provide a complete explanation. We
have shown that the risk of recurrence, second primary cancer or metastasis was higher for AfAm compared to
EuAm after matching patients on age and smoking dose and adjusting for sex, family history of cancer, alcohol
use, SES, insurance, stage at diagnosis, and treatment modality. These findings suggest that other than clinical
and socioeconomic factors, host factors such as genetics may also contribute to survival disparities. Standard
treatment of HNSCC utilizes combined-modality therapy that involves DNA damaging agents such as
radiotherapy (RT) and platinum-based chemotherapy (PbC). A reduction of treatment sensitivity to DNA
damaging agents are often attributed to repair of DNA lesions by DNA damage response (DDR) genes expressed
in cancer tissues. We performed genomic analyses of tissues from oral cavity and laryngeal cancer (OCLxC)
patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The impact of genetic ancestry on gene expression of DDR
genes was evaluated in 316 patients. After adjusting for gene methylation, copy number variation and population
stratification, five ancestry informative markers (AIMs) were associated with altered mRNA expression of the
DDR gene Polymerase β (POLB) where 1) higher expression of POLB was observed among AfAm patients in
comparison to EuAm patients and 2) patients treated with RT/PbC with one or two African ancestry alleles
(homozygous or heterozygous genotypes) at these genetic loci had lower overall survival (~21%) and disease-
free survival (~22%) in contrast to patients with both European ancestry alleles at these genetic loci. Elevated
expression of POLB modulates cellular DNA repair capacity and DNA replication that would provide tumor
resistance to RT/PbC. Therefore we will test the hypothesis that genetic ancestry contributes to differences in
expression of POLB resulting in differences in survival between Black and White OCLxC patients treated with
RT/PbC, mediated by enhanced nuclear and mitochondrial DNA repair capacity and an oncogenic-like replicative
state due to POLB over expression. Using novel approaches that involve molecular epidemiology combined with
basic tumor cell and molecular biology, we will confirm our preliminary findings, investigate th...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10357853
- **Project number:** 5R01CA238061-04
- **Recipient organization:** RESEARCH INST OF FOX CHASE CAN CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Camille C. Ragin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $578,891
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-01 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10357853

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10357853, Investigating genetic ancestry influences on oral cavity and laryngeal cancer survival disparities (5R01CA238061-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10357853. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*