USA Health MCI Researchers Publish Cervical Cancer Study

Researchers at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute (MCI) have published a study on health disparities in cervical cancer in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. The study, “Genome-Wide DNA Methylation Profiling Reveals Ancestry-Associated Epigenetic Reprogramming in Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia,” sought to explore why cervical cancer is more aggressive in women of African ancestry than it is in women of European ancestry. “We know that there are differences in the body’s response to human papillomavirus, or HPV, that may play a role in the development of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia—differences encoded by stress, which may play a role in the differences we see by ancestry,” said Dr. Jennifer Young Pierce, who was one of the authors of the study. The researchers studied precancerous cervical tissue biopsies from women of African ancestry and women of European ancestry. They found that the pattern of “turn-off” and “turn-on” genes, or pathway signatures, differed between the two groups. The findings suggest that restoring tumor suppressor genes may reverse the early development of cervical cancer.