‘Race’ and cancer therapy: Here’s why Black people are least likely to be helped by today’s genetically-targeted treatments

Nearly half of all new cancer drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the past quarter-century have received that approval based on their ability to target genetic changes driving tumor growth.

Medical oncologists use information about the genetic mutations found in tumors to match patients with specific precision oncology therapies—many of which have become part of standard treatment. Many more precision oncology treatments are being tested in clinical trials.

But unfortunately, not all patients have benefited equally from this molecular matchmaking. Patients of European ancestry are more likely to find a match to the latest treatments than patients of other ancestries, according to [a] study from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). The research was published January 9, 2025, in JAMA Oncology.

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“Our findings are very concerning,” says MSK computational biologist Kanika Arora, MS, lead author of the paper. “Our research has found that especially in the past five years, when the largest number of precision oncology therapies have been approved, patients of African ancestry have been significantly less likely to benefit from these drugs compared with patients of European ancestry.”

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here