In sub-Saharan Africa, Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) incidence and mortality rates have risen dramatically as the HIV/AIDS epidemic has evolved. In the developed world, cervical cancer is also HIV-related, but sub-Saharan Africa had among the world's highest cervical cancer rates even before the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Access to anti-retroviral therapy and survival with AIDS are improving, but HIV- related malignancies are an increasingly urgent public health problem for men, women, and children in South Africa. We propose to strengthen research capacity in KS, NHL, and cervical cancer through a training collaboration with institutions in South Africa, building on the achievements of the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University (CU). Since 1994, our Southern Africa Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program (CU-SA AITRP) based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has played a vital role in creating science infrastructure to meet the challenges of HIV in South Africa, the epicenter of the global HIV pandemic. The CU-SA AITRP's >300 trainees have published >900 papers, in such journals as Science, Nature and the Lancet. Ex-trainees are now global leaders in research on HIV pathogenesis in acute HIV infection, new prevention technologies, and new approaches to treating HIV-TB co-infection. Similarly, for nearly 25 years, we have had an NCI-funded T32 training grant, and for 7 years an R25 training grant;both are collaborations of faculty in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health Sciences and CU's NCI- funded Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Providing a multidisciplinary perspective, the two programs have trained more than 100 cancer researchers who have gone on to prestigious academic and research positions. Our prior D43 grant generated data confirming the high rates of KS and the problem of managing it in KZN given the heavy burden of co-morbid tuberculosis (TB). Each year, our collaborators at the University of KZN see >150 new patients with KS, those at Stellenbosch University >100 new cases of NHL, and those at the University of Witwatersrand >200 new cases of cervical cancer. In the proposed 3- year grant, our team of leading cancer epidemiologists, oncologists, and laboratory scientists will focus on those 3 cancers, working with 18 pre- and postdoctoral trainees and with colleagues in South Africa who are providing clinical care, conducting trials, and collecting specimens for study. Trainees will take courses at CU and the collaborating universities in South Africa. Some will acquire specific expertise in needed laboratory techniques;others will be trained in patient-oriented clinical research or public-health oriented epidemiology (potentially applicable to building a much-needed population-based cancer registry). We will conduct two workshops in cancer and clinical epidemiology in South Africa. All trainees will receive mentoring, and all participants will be committed to building long-term collaborations and research capacity on HIV-related malignancies in resource-limited settings (e.g., development of a quick, low-cost KS test).

Public Health Relevance

This program is a critical training resource to strengthen the institutional base for pivotal bench-to-bedside research on the three major HIV-related malignancies at institutions dealing with the burden of those diseases in the epicenter of the-HIV pandemic and to give the rising generation of scientists a global health perspective.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
International Research Training Grants (D43)
Project #
1D43CA153715-01
Application #
8009645
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZCA1-RTRB-8 (M2))
Program Officer
Dominguez, Geraldina
Project Start
2010-08-27
Project End
2013-07-31
Budget Start
2010-08-27
Budget End
2011-07-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$531,157
Indirect Cost
Name
Columbia University (N.Y.)
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
621889815
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Cubasch, Herbert; Dickens, Caroline; Joffe, Maureen et al. (2018) Breast cancer survival in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa: A receptor-defined cohort of women diagnosed from 2009 to 11. Cancer Epidemiol 52:120-127
Kasembeli, Alex N; Duarte, Raquel; Ramsay, Michèle et al. (2015) APOL1 Risk Variants Are Strongly Associated with HIV-Associated Nephropathy in Black South Africans. J Am Soc Nephrol 26:2882-90
Simonds, Hannah M; Neugut, Alfred I; Jacobson, Judith S (2015) HIV Status and Acute Hematologic Toxicity Among Patients With Cervix Cancer Undergoing Radical Chemoradiation. Int J Gynecol Cancer 25:884-90
Dickens, Caroline; Joffe, Maureen; Jacobson, Judith et al. (2014) Stage at breast cancer diagnosis and distance from diagnostic hospital in a periurban setting: a South African public hospital case series of over 1,000 women. Int J Cancer 135:2173-82
Cubasch, Herbert; Joffe, Maureen; Hanisch, Rachel et al. (2013) Breast cancer characteristics and HIV among 1,092 women in Soweto, South Africa. Breast Cancer Res Treat 140:177-86
McCormack, Valerie A; Joffe, Maureen; van den Berg, Eunice et al. (2013) Breast cancer receptor status and stage at diagnosis in over 1,200 consecutive public hospital patients in Soweto, South Africa: a case series. Breast Cancer Res 15:R84
Simonds, Hannah M; Wright, Jason D; du Toit, Naomi et al. (2012) Completion of and early response to chemoradiation among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and HIV-negative patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma in South Africa. Cancer 118:2971-9