If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito (African Proverb). While Africa may feel like a world away from Australia and be too ‘small’ to participate in cutting-edge research, our mission is to be the ‘mosquito’ and demonstrate through African partnership, what knowledge Africa can bring to the world and our understanding of prostate cancer aetiology.
Prostate cancer health disparity
Prostate cancer is characterised by significant geographic and ethnic disparity. While incidence rates are highest in Australia, mortality rates are highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, being from Africa doubles your risk for a prostate cancer associated death. In the United States, being of African ancestry not only doubles your risk, but increases it 3-fold for African American men younger than 65 years of age. This significant health disparity suggesting environment, lifestyle or genetic contributing factors. Our research is focused on using cutting-edge multi-omic technologies and computational big data science to identify these factors. Our vision, to reduce the global burden of prostate cancer associated mortality, while closing the gap to African inclusion in precision health.
Precision health
Precision health is an approach to healthcare that treats the individual, rather than the collective. It takes ones environment, lifestyle and genetics into consideration when diagnosing, preventing and treating disease, such as prostate cancer. As the rest of the world are marching forward into this new era, Africa and Africans have largely been left behind. Prostate cancer management built upon a non-African model. We propose that Africa, with the highest genetic, environmental and lifestyle diversity, holds untapped potential to identify which factors, and which combination of factors, are contributing to significant disparities in prostate cancer health outcomes. We propose this research will benefit all men globally.
Photos: Vanessa Hayes
Southern African Prostate Cancer Study (SAPCS)
Initiated in 2008 with seed funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of South Africa, the SAPCS was established to provide a collaborative research infrastructure for clinical, epidemiological, and molecular-genetic studies aimed at understanding the etiology of prostate cancer ethnic-based health disparities.
Founding members SAPCS launch in 2008 Polokwane, Limpopo, South Africa. Left to right: Dr Richard Monare, Prof Riana Bornman, Prof Vanessa Hayes, Prof Philip Venter, Dr Smit van Zyl.
SAPCS Management
SAPCS is managed out of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, in partnership with the University of Sydney in Australia. The management team includes Prof Riana Bornman, Clinical Director (University of Pretoria), Prof Vanessa Hayes, Scientific Director (University of Sydney) and Prof Shingai Mutambirwa, Urological Director (Sefako Makhatho Health Sciences University, South Africa).
SAPCS Research Objectives
To determine the disease burden of prostate cancer within Southern Africa, with the inclusion of the most rural communities. To provide recommendations for clinical management of relevance for all ethnicities, driving local policy and awareness. To identify modifiable environmental or lifestyle risk factors for prostate cancer and specifically those associated with aggressive disease presentation in Black Southern African men. To identify genetic factors associated with prostate cancer risk, adverse outcomes and ethnic-based health disparities. To identify the molecular-genetic mechanisms driving prostate tumour initiation and advanced progression within Black Southern African men and in turn provide an African-led strategy for diagnosing, treating and ultimately preventing lethal disease.
East African Prostate Cancer Study (EAPCS)
Built on the SAPCS model and aligned Research Objectives, the EAPCS was initiated in 2018 with the goal to acquire International funding to establish a prostate cancer database and biobank for matched demographic, lifestyle and clinical data, with biospecimens for biochemical and molecular-genetic investigation for KENYAN men.
Founding members of the East African Prostate Cancer Study (EAPCS) at Kenyatta Hospital, Nairobi Kenya in 2018 with (left to right): Riana Bornman, Peter Mungai Ngugi, Vanessa Hayes and Micah Ongeri
EAPCS Management
EAPCS is managed out of the University of Nairobi and the East African Kidney Instutite (EAKI) in Nairobi, Kenya, under the directorship of Professor Peter Mungai Ngugi (Urological Director), with Co-investigators Dr Micah Ongeri and Dr Winstar Mokua, and facilitated by SAPCS Scientific and Clinical Director Collaborators Professors Vanessa Hayes and Riana Bornman.