SC State student Sanders continues groundbreaking research on HPV and prostate cancer
ORANGEBURG, S.C. – This spring, South Carolina State University senior I' Ayana Sanders presented her research on prostate cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV) for a second time at the Palmetto Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association (PMDPA) Convention.
PMDPA is a state organization comprised of Black physicians, dentists and pharmacists dedicated to growing more medically trained professionals and to improving health care in the Black community.
Sanders is a biology major with a minor in chemistry and a concentration in oncology. She is passionate about conducting research to better the lives of prostate cancer and HPV victims in the state of South Carolina.
Out of the nine young investigators who presented research during the symposium, Sanders, 22, was the only undergraduate.
The opportunity to speak at the PMDPA Convention stemmed from the South Carolina Cancer Disparities Research Center (SC CADRE) and the South Carolina Cancer Health Equity Consortium (SC CHEC) Program.
SC CADRE is a partnership between the Medical University of South Carolina’s (MUSC) Hollings Cancer Center and SC State. It aims to create a diverse future generation of cancer researchers specially trained to improve cancer health outcomes for South Carolinians.
In 2022, Sanders conducted research that analyzed the HPV vaccination as a part of the HPV Vaccination Project at MUSC’s Hollings Cancer Center.
In 2023, she then focused her research on prostate cancer in the South Carolina Prostate Cancer Screening Program for African American Men (SC AMEN Program). The scholarly article is entitled, “The SC AMEN Program for Black Men: Providing Education and Navigation to Prostate Cancer Screening with Informed Decision Making.”
Sanders also co-authored a scholarly article that was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, entitled ‘Evaluation of the First-Year Data from an HPV Vaccination Van Program in South Carolina, U.S.’.
She is working on another publication that will help more civilians who are victims of prostate cancer and HPV.