Abstract 3503: Racial disparity and roles of social determinants of health in epigenetic age acceleration among survivors of childhood cancer

Our published studies demonstrated that epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) is significantly higher in childhood cancer survivors than non-cancer controls. Additionally, EAA is associated with germline genetics, cancer treatments, unfavorable health behaviors, and chronic health conditions. However, our previous studies were limited to non-Hispanic whites (NHW). We aimed to investigate and compare the EAA between non-Hispanic blacks (NHB) and NHW, and evaluate the contribution of social determinants of health (SDOH) to potential racial disparity in EAA. Methylation profiling was generated using Infinium EPIC BeadChips on blood derived DNA from 460 NHB and 2,052 NHW from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort. EAA was estimated as the residual from the fit of a simple linear regression of epigenetic age (EA, using Levine’s clock) on chronological age (CA, i.e., age at DNA sampling). Cumulative doses of chemotherapy and region-specific radiation exposures were abstracted from medical records. Educational attainment was categorized into 3 levels (< high school, high school, ≥ college). Personal income was categorized into 3 levels (none, < $40,000 and ≥ $40,000). For socioeconomic area deprivation index (ADI), we considered >75th percentile, 40th to 75th percentile, and