Global Collaboration Is Key to Advancing Cancer Research: Luis Carvajal-Carmona, PhD

In an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care® at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago, Luis Carvajal-Carmona, PhD, professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, emphasizes the importance of international collaboration in expanding global cancer research.

Carvajal-Carmona will further explore this topic on Tuesday during the session, "Advancing Cancer Research in Understudied Populations by Engaging With Local and Global Communities," in his presentation, "How Can Global Health Research Help Us Advance Fighting Cancer for Everyone?"

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

Overall, why is global health research so important when it comes to advancing cancer research and care?

We live in an interconnected world and an increasingly diverse society. I mean, if you think about Americans, Americans come from all over the world. By studying cancer in other populations, we can advance the understanding of the disease. There are many examples in which discoveries in developing countries are helping people here in America.

From a global perspective, which areas of cancer research are currently the most well-established or advanced?

I will say the areas of infectious-related cancers, cancers that are caused by infection; I would say that is an area where more progress has been made. We have learned a lot about cervical cancer, liver cancer, and stomach cancer by studying people in other countries.

In contrast, what areas are still underdeveloped and in need of greater attention?

I think there are a lot of new environmental exposures, or old environmental exposures, that we don't know how they are causing cancer, or by which mechanisms. I think there is a lot of work needed on that, on understanding cancer etiology caused by new agents.

Also, most cancer cases are now happening in developing countries, and we need to understand why. I mean, there are some ideas about westernization and the adoption of the Western lifestyle, but there are other elements that we still need to understand.

Similarly, which populations worldwide remain underrepresented in cancer research?

I think Africa, we know very little about cancer in Africa; Southeast Asia, Latin America, and India. More work needs to be done there, and the world will help them. If we understand more about cancer in this population, it will help them, but it also will help everyone because cancer is a disease that affects everyone.

What strategies or efforts can help expand global cancer research and improve the representation of diverse populations within it?

One primary barrier is funding. It's difficult to do cancer research because funding is lower. So, increasing funding is important.

Also, I think it's important to help scientists and clinicians in developing countries support their own research. Capacity building in terms of training people in these countries will go a long way because they could start doing research locally.

I will say it's important to have collaborations that are equitable. If we are collaborating with clinicians and scientists in developing countries to study cancer, credit and funding should be equitable.

Can you elaborate on the role international collaboration plays in advancing cancer research? How can it be strengthened to better benefit diverse populations worldwide?

I think we still need to know a lot about cancer. If we only study cancer in North America and in Europe, it will take us longer to beat the disease. If we expand our horizons and we look at cancer patients and families in other places of the world, we will understand more about how this disease develops, and we will be able to develop ways to prevent it and treat it. It is important for us to increase these collaborations and to study other populations.

The United States plays an outside role in funding cancer research on the planet. What is important for us in the collaborations is to establish that there is a component of training that knowledge, right?

So, we come up with strategies that people in these countries can use to start to develop their own studies and research, and they get the credit for the important findings that we are obtaining from these collaborations.

In your opinion, what are currently the most exciting or promising areas of global cancer research?

I think anything that has to do with vaccines for cancer prevention is exciting. In developing countries, I will say, the use of genomics to understand cancer etiology.

We know there are unique lifestyle and environmental exposures in some countries. Now, people are using genomics to really understand, what are the consequences of being exposed to unique carcinogens? That is very exciting.