Neha Goel, MD

Exploring how an individual’s neighborhood environment impacts their breast cancer development and growth.

Impact

An individual’s neighborhood impacts many aspects of their life with disadvantaged neighborhoods experiencing limited access to healthcare, good food, clean air and water, and more. In fact, despite significant advances in breast cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, women living in disadvantaged compared to advantaged neighborhoods have higher breast cancer mortality rates. Dr. Goel is conducting studies to examine precisely how neighborhood disadvantage influences breast cancer survival and how neighborhood disadvantage “gets under the skin” and impacts an aggressive tumor microenvironment (TME). She hopes that her findings will enhance our understanding of the epidemiologic and genomic links between neighborhood disadvantage and an aggressive breast cancer TME. Her team will also examine the connection between psychological stress in these neighborhoods and tumor aggressiveness. Dr. Goel’s results may pave the way for future development of strategies to target modifiable factors and potentially level the playing field for those in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

What’s next

Dr. Goel and her colleagues will leverage epidemiologic and genomic data from the ongoing Miami Breast Cancer Disparities Study, a prospective longitudinal cohort study with 280 breast cancer biospecimens and validated survey data on perceived neighborhood stress. Samples from this large and diverse cohort of patients (approximately 55 percent Hispanic, 20 percent Black, 21 percent White) will be utilized to map the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which neighborhood disadvantage leads to aggressive tumor biology. Laboratory studies will focus on specific tumor drivers correlated with disadvantaged neighborhoods. On the patient level, distribution of neighborhood surveys will be expanded to assess if higher levels of perceived stress are also associated with an aggressive TME.