Georgia State University professor and researcher Ritu Aneja has received a $148,387 U.S. grant to study an aggressive type of breast cancer prevalent in Nigeria.
The NIH-National Center Institute grant covers triple-negative breast cancer; the funding builds on a $10,000 seed grant the GSU Office of International Initiatives provided to help Dr. Aneja continue her global research on cancer disparities, particularly in partnership with Saad Ahmed, professor and breast pathologist at Nigeria’s Ahmadu Bello University.
The larger grant provides funding both for the collection of specimens but also to defray costs of treatment and participating in a clinical study; Dr. Aneja has found in previous visits to Nigeria costs to be a significant hurdle for some in seeking treatment.
“The availability of funds to support this research is invaluable to tackling global health issues and will help me align my research to the university’s research goals,” Dr. Aneja said in a news release.
In 2016, Dr. Aneja founded ICART, the International Consortium for Advancing Research on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, which fails to respond to hormone-based treatments because its cells test negative for three important hormonal receptors for breast-cancer drugs, according to ICART’s website. More than half of all Nigerian and Ghanaian women with breast cancer have this variety. ICART counts partners from nine countries, including its founding partners at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom.
Learn more about the grant here.
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