# Project 1

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $258,356

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
There has been a reduction in breast cancer mortality in the United States in the last three decades with about
16% of women with breast cancer dying from the disease in 2017. However, racial disparities have been
widened during this period. African American breast cancer patients have 42% excess mortality compared to
whites. The preponderance of less favorable pathological characteristics, such as triple negative disease and
high-grade tumors, coupled with individual- and health system-related disadvantages in health care access
and treatment among African Americans can only partly explain this racial disparity in breast cancer mortality.
Even in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, a subtype that is considered treatable, African
Americans still have about two-fold higher risk of death or relapse than their white counterparts. The genomics
of late relapse in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer is poor understood. Somatic mutations indicate the
cumulative consequences of DNA damage and repair processes operative in cancer cells. The signatures of
mutation processing could be important hallmarks and predictors for breast cancer relapse. Separately, there
is emerging evidence that human microbiome is related to tumor immunosurveillance, is correlated with cancer
therapy, has potential to be novel biomarker for prognosis, and varies by ethnic populations. In the proposed
study, we will leverage an existing cohort - The Chicago Multiethnic Epidemiologic Breast Cancer Cohort
(ChiMEC) – to perform deep whole exome sequenicng (WES) of 500 well-phenotyped tumors to identify
somatic mutation signatures (Aim 1). A nested case-control study design will be used with half African
Americans and half Caucasians. We will investigate whether pattern of somatic mutations and mutation
signatures can predict breast cancer recurrence and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and whether
mutation signatures are different between racial groups. We will also enhance the ChiMEC cohort by
establishing a biobank of stool samples for microbiome analysis (Aim 2). In 140 patients receiving
neoadjuvant chemotherapy, we will perform a Microbiome Wide Association Study (MWAS) to determine
whether fecal microbial biomarkers are predictive of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The goal of this
application is to extend our understanding of role of tumor genomics and gut microbiota for breast cancer
progression disparities, and the study findings of this project could lead to novel interventions to accelerate
implementation of Precision Oncology care.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9994741
- **Project number:** 5P20CA233307-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Dezheng Huo
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $258,356
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-13 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9994741

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9994741, Project 1 (5P20CA233307-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9994741. Licensed CC0.

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