Caribbean Cancer Cell Line

The vast majority of biomedical research draws on source data derived from white populations. Cancer research is no exception—97% of all cancer cell lines in use globally are from individuals of Caucasian descent. This poses a serious problem for the development of treatments that are effective across diverse populations.

During her PhD, Jamaican cancer researcher Dr Simone Badal discovered that the cell lines she was using to test natural prostate cancer chemotherapies were not representative of the populations most affected by prostate cancer in the Caribbean. This realisation led her to develop the first Caribbean cancer cell line, a major step toward addressing racial and regional bias in cancer research. Her work highlights how racial disparities in source data can compromise both the validity and equity of scientific findings.

This case study exemplifies the importance of critically assessing whose data is used in research—and the consequences when large groups are excluded. It also underscores the impact that individual researchers can have when they challenge existing norms and build new infrastructure for inclusion. Dr Badal’s work not only improves the relevance of cancer research for Caribbean populations, but also sets a precedent for others to address underrepresentation in their own fields.

In this YouTube video, Dr Badal discusses her work to create the first Caribbean cell line: First Caribbean cell line. The paper Expanding the Prostate Cancer Cell Line Repertoire with ACRJ-PC28, an AR-negative Neuroendocrine Cell Line Derived From an African-Caribbean Patient by Valentine et al. provides more scientific detail on this project.

Genetics research ‘biased towards studying white Europeans’ is a Guardian article that provides some additional background to this example.