These findings underscore the urgent need for research into the etiology and treatment of the aggressive molecular subtypes that disproportionately affect young women in the African diaspora.

Approximately 30,000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) occur in the equatorial belt of Africa each year. Apart from the fact that Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is very common among children and adolescents in Africa and that an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is currently ongoing in this part of the world, very little is known about lymphomas in Africa. This review provides information regarding the current infrastructure for diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa. The results on the diagnostic accuracy and on the distribution of different lymphoma subsets in sub-Saharan Africa were based on a review undertaken by a team of lymphoma experts on159 fine needle aspirationsamples and 467 histological samples during their visit to the African centres is presented. Among children (<18 years of age), BL accounted for 82% of all NHL, and among adults, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma accounted for 55% of all NHLs. Among adults, various lymphomas other than BL, including T-cell lymphomas, were encountered. The review also discusses the current strategies of the International Network of Cancer Treatment and Research on improving the diagnostic standards and management of lymphoma patients and in acquiring reliable clinical and pathology data in sub-Saharan Africa for fostering high-quality translational research.

Racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer mortality continue to widen but genomic studies rarely interrogate breast cancer in diverse populations. Through genome, exome, and RNA sequencing, we examined the molecular features of breast cancers using 194 patients from Nigeria and 1037 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Relative to Black and White cohorts in TCGA, Nigerian HR + /HER2 − tumors are characterized by increased homologous recombination deficiency signature, pervasive TP53 mutations, and greater structural variation—indicating aggressive biology. GATA3 mutations are also more frequent in Nigerians regardless of subtype. Higher proportions of APOBEC-mediated substitutions strongly associate with PIK3CA and CDH1 mutations, which are underrepresented in Nigerians and Blacks. PLK2, KDM6A, and B2M are also identified as previously unreported significantly mutated genes in breast cancer. This dataset provides novel insights into potential molecular mechanisms underlying outcome disparities and lay a foundation for deployment of precision therapeutics in underserved populations.