Biography
Dr. Fejerman earned her undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed a PhD in Biological Anthropology at the University of Oxford, England. She is the 2019-2020 Chairperson of the AACR Minorities in Cancer Research Council and Leader of the San Francisco Cancer Initiative Breast Cancer Task Force. Her research focuses on the discovery of genetic and non-genetic factors that contribute to breast cancer risk and prognosis in Latinas. Her past work established a relationship between genetic ancestry and breast cancer risk, where higher European ancestry in U.S. and Mexican Latinas was associated with an increased risk. Her subsequent research has built upon this observation, exploring genetic variants, through admixture mapping and genome-wide association approaches. Additional work explores disparities in breast cancer prognosis in Latinas and its potential causes, including access to information, screening and care.
This panel will consider Precision Medicine interventions along the cancer continuum which will demonstrate more effective health approaches to these populations.The discussion of emerging concepts challenges the focus merely on Precision Medicine, which alone will only exacerbate disparities.