Investigating the Role of Vitamin D and DNA Repair in Influencing Cancer Presentation and Outcomes

Abstract

Recent studies have identified differences in cancer risk, severity, and response to treatments in different ethnic groups. When comparing Americans of African descent to those of Caucasian descent, symptoms in African American patients were consistently severe with increased mortality rates. Research has indicated that this difference in the cancer phenotype between these two ethnic groups may be a result of both biological and socioeconomic factors 1. Our current study will focus on the potential- biological factors. We hypothesize that vitamin D deficiency in the AA population and associated differences in DNA repair capacity are the biological basis of the cancer- phenotypic variance between these populations. Lymphoblastic (LCL) cell lines cataloged in (http://www.1000genomes.org/) with known genotypes of human repair genes will be quantified for DNA repair capacity using comet assay, cell cycle analysis, and gene expression of key DNA repair genes (for both ethnic groups) after exposure to DNA damaging chemotherapeutic agents. Chi-square based population association approach will be used to associate genotypes of DNA repair genes to DRC capacity, thus providing the basis of population difference in the cancer phenotype.