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University Of Maryland CERSI

TBD

About the Presentation

Advances in screening and treatment have improved survival among US cancer patients; however, survival disparities persist among the elderly and racial and ethnic minorities. In addition, older and minority patients are underrepresented in oncology clinical trials; therefore, evidence on the relative efficacy and toxicity of different therapies in these population groups is limited. The University of Maryland Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI) project ‘Building Capacity for Research on Cancer and Aging: The University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC)-Medicare Database’ is a 2-year pilot project, funded by the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence. Objectives are: 1) to determine the feasibility of using record linkage (UMGCCC registry, Epic electronic health record (EHR), and Medicare claims) to create a database to support multi-level research on determinants of cancer outcomes in older adults; and 2) to obtain preliminary data identifying causes of disparities in cancer outcomes in older adults. A total of 3,119 patients who were aged 65 years and older and were diagnosed with a primary malignant tumor or received their first course of treatment at UMGCCC in 2018-2021 were identified through the tumor registry and successfully linked to a Medicare beneficiary ID. Linkage to the Epic EHR to obtain additional patient-level characteristics (e.g., education, body mass index) is currently ongoing.

About the Presenter

Dr. Dorgan serves as Professor and Director of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine and co-leader of the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) Population Science Program. She has over 25 years of experience conducting research that has involved leading multidisciplinary teams of researchers in the conduct of multicenter epidemiologic studies. As a molecular epidemiologist with expertise on biobehavioral determinants of cancer risk, much of her research focuses on hormonal determinants of cancer, particularly breast cancer, and how diet, physical activity and genetics influence risk through hormonal pathways. In recent efforts focused on metabolomics, Dr. Dorgan evaluated alcohol’s influence on serum metabolomics profiles and associations of obesity over the life course with serum metabolomic profiles and breast density. I recently completed an NCI funded project (R01 CA214783) to examine early life factors associated with cancer risk later in life. She currently is funded by FDA (U01FD005946-06) to create the database infrastructure, i.e., the UMGCCC-Medicare database, to support multidisciplinary translational research to identify determinants of disparities in cancer survival among older adults. Over the course of her career, she has mentored numerous graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty. Currently, Dr. Dorgan is the primary mentor on Dr. Barry’s NCI K07 award ‘Epigenomic and Transcriptomic Markers of Aggressive Prostate Cancer Among African American Men’ and on Dr. Cher Dallal’s American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant ‘Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Breast Cancer Racial Disparities’.

For Questions and Reasonable Accommodations:

Please contact Ruize Li at Ruize.Li@fda.hhs.gov or go to Interpreting.Services@oc.fda.gov.