Researchers at Tempus partnered with Henry Ford Health to study and identify the key molecular differences between Black and African American and White patients’ pancreatic tumors. 

Certain molecular tumor characteristics occur more frequently in Black & African American (BAA) PDAC tumors. Alterations in genes such as KMT2C, more frequent in our cohort of BAA tumors, are known contributors to pancreatic tumorigenesis and represent potential therapeutic targets. Findings highlight the importance of sequencing tumors from racially and ethnically diverse populations.

“This collaboration with Tempus provides us access to an exceptional resource of real-world data, enabling us to investigate molecular features distinctly associated with race in pancreatic cancer patients at a larger scale than otherwise possible,” said Ling Huang, PhD, Henry Ford Health. “The findings from this study offer new insights into the biological mechanisms underlying racial disparities in pancreatic cancer.”

This study was presented at the AACR Cancer Health Disparities in 2023.