African American patients with bladder cancer have worse clinical even after accounting for stage and treatment. We want to understand why. Our research focuses on a type of DNA that escapes from chromosomes and forms tiny circular pieces inside cancer cells, called extrachromosomal DNA or ecDNA. We discovered that African American patients with bladder cancer have more of this circular DNA, and that it is larger and more complex.
We found that these larger circles bring cancer-activating genes closer together, which may make the cancer grow faster and resist treatment. We also found that small genetic elements called LINE-1 which can copy and paste themselves around the genome tend to land near cancer genes on these circles. This is important because LINE-1 activity can cause DNA breaks that may trigger the formation of ecDNA in the first place.

None Reported as of August 2025

None Reported as of August 2025