Epidemiology

Building on the achievements of our Southern Africa Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program and our NCI-funded T32 and R25 cancer research training programs, we have developed a program specifically designed to develop capacity within South Africa for research on HIV-related malignancies. The Columbia University-South Africa Training Program for Research on AIDS-related Malignancies (CUSATPRAM) is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, USA. We have a formal collaboration with investigators at the University of KwaZulu/Natal (UKZN) in Durban, Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, but we welcome applicants from other institutions in South Africa as well.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Kaposi sarcoma (KS) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) incidence and mortality rates have risen dramatically as the HIV/AIDS epidemic has evolved. In the developed world, cervical cancer is also HIV-related, but sub-Saharan Africa had among the world’s highest cervical cancer rates even before the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Access to anti-retroviral therapy and survival with AIDS are improving, but HIV-related malignancies are an increasingly urgent public health problem for men, women, and children in South Africa. Moreover, given its high prevalence, HIV may play a role in the etiology, treatment, or outcome of all malignancies in South Africa.  

The aims of our training program are:

1. To increase the number of investigators in South Africa trained in cancer epidemiology and biostatistics.
2. To increase the number of investigators in South Africa trained in pathologic and virologic methods relevant to HIV-related malignancies.
3. To expand the capacity of South African investigators to design and conduct clinical and laboratory studies of the association of HIV with cancer.