# Adopting a functional precision medicine approach to reduce cancer disparities in Hispanic and Black children of Miami

> **NIH NIH U54** · FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $353,704

## Abstract

FIU-RCMI Research Project #1 Abstract
Despite improvements in overall survival for pediatric cancers, treatment disparities remain for racial/ethnic
minorities compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity are both significantly associated
with decreased overall survival outcomes in childhood sarcomas, brain, and central nervous system tumors.
Thus, there is a large unmet need for reducing racial/ethnic disparities to improve detection, treatment, and
survival in pediatric cancer patients. It is well documented that Hispanic and Black children with cancer are
more than 50 percent less likely to enroll in clinical trials testing cancer treatments than non-Hispanic White
children. Particularly, studies that provide precision oncology approaches vastly underrepresent racial and
ethnic minority populations. Thus, it is imperative to provide precision oncology studies that encompass
children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, so that meaningful precision data can be collected, and all
individuals may benefit from cancer research breakthroughs and personalized treatments. We propose to
address these problems by adopting, for the first time, a functional precision medicine (FPM) approach for
individual minority patients to understand the genetic, molecular, transcriptomic, and phenotypic properties
which may be particularly important for explaining Hispanic and Black cancer health disparities. We
hypothesize that distinct genetic variance in Hispanic and Black populations is likely to substantially contribute
to variability in drug treatment response and overall survival. Using our robust high throughput ex vivo drug
sensitivity assay (DST), and combining it with mutation analysis, we will be able to create a compendium of
drug responses in individual patients, match actionable mutations with selective targeted therapies, and
clinically apply individual treatment to refractory patients with no alternative options. Hence, we propose the
following aims: Specific Aim 1: To evaluate a functional precision medicine (FPM) approach as a tool to
reduce cancer disparities in children. We intend to expand access of personalized treatment options and
clinical management recommendations to Hispanic and Black pediatric cancer patients based on ex vivo drug
sensitivity testing (DST) and genomic profiling. Specific Aim 2: To uncover novel correlations between genetic
alterations and ex vivo drug responses in minority populations. We will perform multi-omics molecular profiling
and integrate a machine learning platform to uncover novel relationships between molecular alterations and
effective drugs specifically associated with Hispanic and Black pediatric populations. Our study will be the first
of its kind to demonstrate the clinical utility of FPM to improve patient outcomes and reduce or eliminate the
cancer disparities in Hispanic and Black children of South Florida. Our proposed work would also lead to
identifying unique genetic and ph...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10707398
- **Project number:** 5U54MD012393-07
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Diana Azzam
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $353,704
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-20 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10707398

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10707398, Adopting a functional precision medicine approach to reduce cancer disparities in Hispanic and Black children of Miami (5U54MD012393-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10707398. Licensed CC0.

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