PhD student Angel Arizpe receives grant to study the implications of substance use among Hispanic cancer survivors

Angel Arizpe, a third year PhD student in the epidemiology program, has been awarded $10,000 from the Healthy Americas Research Consortium (HARC) Todos Juntos Grants. The grant supports his work advancing research on cancer health disparities using data sets from the NIH’s All of Us Research Workbench. As a grantee, Arizpe will receive ongoing training and technical assistance to make use of one of the largest and most diverse biomedical data resources of its kind.

The grant is dedicated towards addressing chronic illness in Hispanic communities. As part of a  research team which includes his mentors Albert Farias, PhD, MPH, and Sue Kim, PhD, MPH, faculty members from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, they aim to investigate whether there is a link between substance use behavior and elevated levels of cardiovascular, metabolic, or immune system biomarkers among cancer survivors. “We want to explore associations around marijuana and alcohol consumption and several biomarkers in this population, because there is not a wealth of literature when it comes to cancer survivors,” Arizpe shares. “Receiving this grant, definitely got me excited—even though it’s small, it reflects the fact that people thought this work is interesting and worth researching.”

Arizpe was drawn to the field of public health while interning at a community hospital during his undergraduate studies. He observed a lack of cultural competency towards addressing the needs of the largely Hispanic and Black patient populations. He became interested in epidemiology, in an effort to investigate and address health disparities. Today, he is interested in understanding the effect of sociocultural, environmental, and biological stressors on the health outcomes of cancer survivors.

During his time at USC, Arizpe has worked on several studies investigating cancer disparities at the Equity in Cancer Care and Health Outcomes (ECCHO) lab with his primary mentor Farias. “We looked at nativity differences when it comes to the association of economic barriers and delays in healthcare,” he says. The study found that socioeconomic barriers to care had a greater impact among foreign-born cancer survivors, with health literacy being a protective factor among their US counterparts. In a subsequent study, he assessed stressors primarily ‘perceived discrimination’ as well as ‘discrimination in medical settings’ and their association with physical and mental health among cancer survivors. “There wasn’t much literature when it came to this commission on medical settings,” Arizpe reveals. “If cancer patients are experiencing discrimination, they are probably less likely to see their doctor which is important in the management and surveillance of their cancer.”

Arizpe’s research mission is to grow the evidence base of research of underserved populations that have historically not been included in biomedical research. His PhD journey will continue to primarily focus on cancer health disparities where he also hopes to understand the impacts of various stressors on the quality of life of cancer survivors to inform interventions that support the needs of this demographic.

About this research

In addition to Arizpe, Farias and Kim, the research team includes Claudia Toledo-Corral, PhD, from California State University, Northridge, and Carol Ochoa-Dominguez, PhD, MPH, a post-doctoral fellow at University of California San Diego.