About TREND
UNC TREND is designed to promote translational, laboratory, population, and clinical research to reduce cancer disparities in African American women with endometrial cancer.
UNC TREND Joint Leadership
Victoria Bae-Jump, MD, PhD
Professor, Gynecologic Oncology, UNC-Chapel Hill
Tope Keku, PhD
Professor, Gastroenterology, UNC-Chapel Hill
Andrew Olshan, PhD
Barbara S. Hulka Distinguished Professor, Epidemiology, UNC-Chapel Hill
UNC TREND Goals
Project 1: Molecular and Epidemiologic Heterogeneity and Disparities in Endometrial Cancer Outcomes
- Conduct a prospective population-based study across the state of NC that will use a comprehensive approach to integrate tumor biology, socioeconomic and other risk factors as contributors to worse outcomes in Non-Hispanic Black endometrial cancer patients.
- Compare the prevalence of known prognostic subtypes between Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White patients that will include the largest number of endometrial cancers from Non-Hispanic Black women to date.
- Conduct a follow-up of the endometrial cancer cohort patients and perform preliminary multivariable analyses to identify Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White differences in clinical/pathological characteristics, molecular subtypes, access to care, treatment and recurrence-free survival.
Project 2: Impact of Race and the Microbiome on the Progression and Treatment of Endometrial Cancer
- Delineate for the first time the malignant uterine and gut microbiota of obese Non-Hispanic Black vs Non-Hispanic White patients as they undergo hysterectomy and, for Stage III/IV, standard-of-care paclitaxel/carboplatin treatment, and correlate this with endometrial cancer molecular subtype and therapeutic response.
- Develop and use racially diverse, molecularly characterized patient-derived xenograft models from both Non-Hispanic Black and Non-Hispanic White women to explore the inter-relationship of race, molecular subtype, and the uterine/gut microbiome on endometrial cancer pathogenesis.
UNC TREND Strengths
- Strong team of interdisciplinary researchers spanning basic science, population science, clinical and translational research.
- History of highly successful collaborative research.
- Geographically and racially-diverse communities in NC.
- History of population-based epidemiologic studies including follow-up and molecular components.
- Long-standing leadership in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Project.
- Cutting-edge scientific approaches:
- Racially diverse patient-derived xenograft models of endometrial cancer.
- Parallel microbiome studies in mice and women.
- Strong institutional support from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center:
- Launch of the Carolina Endometrial Cancer Study – opened in September 2020.
- $1.99 million over 5 years commitment from UNC Lineberger.
- History of training and development of the next generation of translational disciplinary scientists.