EU Africa PerMed Webinar - Oncology: Personalised Medicine approach

The first of a series of webinars and training activities with the objective to support the translation of Personalised Medicine research into practice and to create a network between European and African researchers. 

17 May 12:00CEST

Registration https://forms.gle/FhtwViQW5V4eXuV47

Cancer is a major public health problem worldwide and is expected to surpass infectious disease as the leading cause of mortality in Africa within the next two decades. It is a group of genomic diseases that presents with intra- and inter-population unique phenotypes, with Black populations having the burden of morbidity and mortality for most types. At large, the prevention and personalized treatment of cancers have been driven by the understanding of the genetic make-up of the disease of mostly non-African populations. For this, it is needed to address the knowledge gap in understanding the underlying genetic causes of, and genomic alterations associated with, cancer among black Africans.

Lastly, it is related to disparities that include socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, and cultural factors that differ between low and high-income countries.

Retinoblastoma is the most common cancer in the paediatric population and Wilms tumor (WT) is the most common renal malignancy of childhood. Both with global disparities reported indicating highest incidence and lowest survival in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently studies are focused on identifying the constitutional mutations  within the African populations.