Abstract IA025: Utilizing Visium spatial transcriptomics to investigate prostate cancer disparity in men of African descent
Authors: Harlemon Maxine S. , Millena Ana C. , Hwang Bor-Jang , Odero-Marah Valerie 
Published: January 2023

People of African descent suffer more from cancer compared to other racial groups in terms of morbidity and mortality. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) reports Black men and women to have the highest diagnoses and highest cancer death rate. The reported cancer disparity statistic is also reflected by cancer type; prostate cancer was shown to be one of the top causes of cancer death in all cancer types, and the second leading cause of death, after lung cancer, in men. Men of African Descent, however, have more than a 2-fold increased mortality rate of prostate cancer compared to other ancestral populations. Cancer is considered a genetic disease, and prostate cancer has a heritability of 58%. Most studies however, do not capture the genetic heterogeneity found in men of African Descent, nor histological and morphological profiles that would provide prognostic and diagnostic markers for targeted and personalized therapeutic treatment options. Visium Spatial Transcriptomics is a method that maps transcriptomics data to the location within the tissue region that is being analyzed. Instead of being limited to a small piece of DNA or RNA, spatial transcriptomics enables high-resolution assessment of spatial gene expression across tissue sections. This technology assiduously probes the transcriptome of tissues samples in an untargeted way. Spatial Transcriptomics involves cutting edge technology that provides great potential to capture the cellular landscape of men with the heaviest burden of prostate cancer. The Visium platform by 10X Genomics is able to interrogate more than 10,000 transcripts per capture region. The protocol involves a comprehensive process from tissue collection to next generation sequencing following a bioinformatics pipeline. The complete protocol from beginning to end requires a collaboration of clinicians, pathologists, basic scientists, and bioinformaticians. This means that access to resources is imperative to the success of this technique. Unfortunately, low resource institutions are at a disadvantage in being able to perform the entire protocol. This fact is yet another type of health disparity. This observation, however, provides great opportunities to establish collaborations with other institutions. Closing the gap between higher and lower resource investigations would be vital in addressing prostate cancer health disparity using spatial transcriptomics. I will share my observation, learning, experimentation, and joint participation effort experience with Visium Spatial Transcriptomics in my quest to understand the genetic architecture of men of African descent that has them at a prolific risk for prostate cancer.

Citation Format: Maxine S. Harlemon, Ana C. Millena, Bor-Jang Hwang, Valerie Odero-Marah. Utilizing Visium spatial transcriptomics to investigate prostate cancer disparity in men of African descent [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr IA025.