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The Latino Cancer Institute (TLCI) is a nationwide community and research network dedicated to solving the issues and burden of Latino cancer.
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death among Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S., accounting for approximately 17% of deaths. At the same time, federal support for health equity and cancer disparities research is facing unprecedented cuts—making community-driven leadership more critical than ever.
Cancer affects Latino men and women differently, requiring targeted approaches. Among Latinas, breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death, while cervical cancer continues to pose a serious and largely preventable threat.
For Latino men, the challenges are equally urgent. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death, and Latino men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate, colorectal, liver, and testicular cancers—often at later stages.
Our mission. The Latino Cancer Institute works to reduce the burden of cancer in Latino communities by convening expertise, amplifying community-informed research, and advocating for equitable cancer care. As public funding becomes more uncertain, philanthropic support helps ensure Latino communities are not left out of cancer research, policy discussions, or solutions. Learn more about our work.
For over 20 years, Founder Ysabel Duron has played a vital role in bringing together those dedicated to making a difference in the Latino cancer landscape. From cancer community workers and caregivers to international medical researchers and policymakers, Ysabel has forged important alliances in a field crowded with many competing interests and agendas.
It takes a savvy insider who has traveled this terrain far and wide to help the Latino cancer community at-large continue changing the landscape. TLCI offers the definitive road map.
The Latino Cancer Institute acts as a network for agencies, linking members to share knowledge and best practices. Connecting colleagues, peers and institutions is critical to The Institute’s ongoing mission to amplify and disseminate outstanding work in the cancer arena, and to support one another.
The Latino Cancer Institute provides opportunities to network, learn and collaborate with stakeholders in the cancer landscape including Latino cancer researchers.
The Latino Cancer Institute convenes leading experts, advocates, and community voices to examine critical cancer issues affecting Latino communities and to surface actionable insights. Recordings from TLCI’s recent Forums are now available—free to watch—covering cancer risks, disparities, and lived experiences across Latino women, men, children, and families. Watch Forum videos.
The Latino Cancer Institute leverages our united voice at the national table to advance Latino cancer concerns including education, services, funding, and research. Our aim is to be heard, understood and included in any proposed policy.
As a nonprofit organization, we rely on philanthropy and grants in our mission to support other agencies. Your funding allows us to continue the development of new programs and tools we can share with those making a difference in the lives of Latino cancer patients, survivors, and their caregivers.
Eating more sugar while taking antibiotics was linked to greater disruption of the gut microbiome and increased growth of potentially harmful bacteria. Researchers say temporarily cutting back on sweets during and after antibiotic treatment could be a simple way to reduce this damage, though clinical trials are still needed.
Blocking a receptor called P2X7 significantly reduced inflammation in human brain tissue, revealing a potential new treatment strategy for neurological and psychiatric disorders. The discovery could help researchers repurpose existing drugs for conditions including traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, and schizophrenia.
Scientists at UC San Francisco have developed a way to create cancer-fighting CAR-T cells directly inside the body, potentially avoiding the slow and extremely expensive process of removing, engineering, and reinfusing a patient’s immune cells. Using a two-particle delivery system, the researchers sent CRISPR gene-editing tools and new cancer-targeting DNA specifically into T cells, where the DNA was inserted at a precise location in the genome.
A ketogenic diet increased small-intestinal tumors in cancer-prone mice while reducing tumors in the colon, revealing a strikingly different response within neighboring parts of the gut. Researchers traced the increased risk not to ketones, but to the way intestinal stem cells processed the diet’s high levels of fat. That fat-burning activity pushed the cells to multiply more rapidly, potentially raising the chance of cancerous changes.
A new nanoparticle therapy reduced lung tumors in mice while also targeting cachexia, the severe muscle wasting that can accompany cancer. By delivering follistatin mRNA directly to tumors, the approach could eventually offer a way to fight both the disease and one of its most dangerous complications.
Cancer immunotherapy can lose its punch when tumor-fighting T cells become exhausted, but researchers may have found a way to keep them going longer. Scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center identified a signaling molecule called MEK that can push T cells to burn through their energy while producing cancer-killing proteins. In animal and laboratory studies, blocking MEK helped the cells conserve energy, survive longer, and remain active even in the harsh environment around tumors.
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