TTUHSC Researcher Receives National Award

• By Kay Williams
• May 31, 2025
• Research

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented its Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Award to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Associate Professor Duke Appiah, Ph.D., MPH, at the AACR 2025 Annual Meeting in Chicago recently.

The award honors outstanding full-time faculty to recognize their significant scientific cancer research contributions and to support their attendance at the AACR Annual Meeting and special conferences.

At the meeting, Appiah presented key findings from one of his recent research endeavors titled, “Higher Risk of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Women with Cancer in the U.S.”

For Appiah, the opportunity to share some of his research and connect with others in the scientific and medical community at a national conference is impactful.

“I was excited to see a focus on cancer disparities at the conference,” Appiah said. “I really did learn a lot. The work I presented on was mainly aimed at helping women of different races and ethnicities who have cancers and their physicians to make informed decisions through gauging the particular risks by race for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Previously, not much focus has been on looking at racial and ethnic differences.”

The outcomes Appiah’s research focused on included rates of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, preterm birth, intrauterine growth restriction, fetal death and maternal mortality.

Cancer is one of several wide-ranging interests and areas of study for Appiah, an epidemiologist with training in applied statistics and data science who has been a professor and researcher with the TTUHSC Julia Jones Matthews School of Population and Public Health for eight years.

“In the sphere of cancer, I look at it from two main ways,” Appiah said. “One of them is to look at rare cancers, and the other one is to look at, usually, gynecologic cancers.

“I'm fascinated by rare cancers. Because they tend not to occur much in the population, you need large databases to study them, which requires data analytics skills. In talking about rare cancers, I'm talking about things like ocular cancer, male breast cancer and primary malignant cardiac tumors, to mention a few. Then, in breast and gynecologic cancers, I tend to look at short- and long-term outcomes after diagnosis.”

Appiah said one career highlight for him was the publication of a 2021 CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians article on his research studying the relationship between skipping breakfast and cancer mortality risk.

“I’ve been fortunate to have had some people with the conditions I’ve studied, even early in my career, who thanked me for my work,” he continued. “It helped me to be a bit more grounded. I’m always thinking about what impact my research could have on patients with this or that condition, how it could make their life better or change their life.”

Appiah said that he takes great satisfaction in making a difference in the lives of his students and those who benefit from his research.

“I always want excellence in all the areas of research that I work in, excellence in communicating that research and excellence with and from the students I teach and mentor,” Appiah said. “One of my joys is helping students come up with good research questions, and just like in the classroom, they also help me learn more and improve.”