Understanding Māori perspectives: tissue being used for living tissue models

Understanding Māori perspectives: tissue being used for living tissue models

Francesca Munro (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Moerewa, Ngāti Rangi)

University of Otago, Dunedin

Māori Cancer Researcher Awards - PhD Scholarship

It is known that different populations have different sub-types of gastric cancer and different responses to treatment. Very little is known about the different sub-types of gastric cancer in Aotearoa and whether those sub-types respond to existing treatments.

The research team and I plan to kōrero with Māori Health Providers and whānau Māori who have experienced gastric cancer in Te Tai Tokerau Northland. We plan to discuss technologies that would enable us to discern the various sub-types and which treatments they respond to. These technologies include genetic sub-typing methods and using living human tissue to create models of the sub-types to test therapies.

We recognise the need to include Māori in these types of studies in order for them to benefit from the findings. We will seek to understand concerns regarding these technologies and discuss ways to provide cultural safety including establishment of relationships for ongoing interaction, changes to laboratory protocols when working with human tissue, and the way data is handled. Discussion regarding any potential benefit sharing will also be covered.

This study is part of a larger study that will use the adapted protocols to discover the sub-types and effective treatments for gastric cancer in our populations of Aotearoa New Zealand.