Breast cancer in Black African women with Professor David Wedge: How analysing genomics can improve our understanding of the aggressiveness of breast cancer

One in Two

In this episode, we speak to Professor David Wedge, Professor of Cancer Genomics and Data Science, about breast cancer in Black African women, focussing on:

· Cancer genomics and what we understand ethnicity to be in the context of genomic research

· David’s work within the International Cancer Genome Consortium

· The increase in aggressiveness of breast cancer that we see in Black African women compared to White Caucasian women

· David’s current research project on genomics of breast cancer progression in Nigerian women

· The importance of international research and discuss how this work is driving for health equity.

Professor David Wedge:

David Wedge is a Professor of Cancer Genomics and Data Science at the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, University of Manchester. He was co-lead of the Evolution and Heterogeneity working group of the ICGC Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) project and is currently one of the leaders of the Pan Prostate Cancer Group.

Much of the research in the Wedge lab is focused on tumour evolution, from the initial transformation of normal cells to cancer, through the acquisition of treatment resistance and to the formation of metastatic lesions. The Wedge group have pioneered the development of computational methods to study heterogeneity in primary and metastatic cancers. Recently, the focus of the lab has shifted towards understudied populations, including the genomics of breast cancer in Nigerian women and of lung cancer in non-smokers.

Professor David Wedge’s research profile

Manchester Cancer Research Centre Breast cancer webpage

Cancer Research UK Breast cancer webpage

Etiology and Genomics of Breast Cancer Progression in Women of African Ancestry paper

Whole-genome analysis of Nigerian patients with breast cancer reveals ethnic-driven somatic evolution and distinct genomic subtypes nature paper