Special Episode with Prof. David Wedge

One in Two: A Manchester Cancer Research Podcast

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

With one in two of us receiving a cancer diagnosis at some point during our lives, it has never been more important to improve the outcomes for people affected by cancer.   

In this episode, we speak to 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 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

Studies that have been done in Africa have shown that there is a higher prevalence, particularly of the more aggressive types of breast cancer in Africa. But when we come to richer countries such as the UK and the US, we’ve removed a lot of the confounders, but we still see a significant difference in the prevalence of aggressive breast cancers between black UK women and white UK women. Our research into genomics is trying to understand this difference in aggressiveness so we can better treat all patients.

Professor David Wedge

Professor of Cancer Genomics and Data Science

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

Listen to the episode now on The University of Manchester YouTube channel

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.