Peter Fiorica

Peter Fiorica.

Peter Fiorica

Peter Fiorica

Thesis Title

Genetic and Ancestral Determinants of Pathological and Molecular Tumor Immune Phenotypes in A Multi-Ethnic Population of Breast Cancer Patients: An Evolutionary Perspective

Research Publications Overview

Publications

  • Yao S, Wei L, Hu Q, Liu S, Manojlovic Z, Fiorica PN, Long M, Zirpoli GR, Cai Q, Long J, Ping J, Barnard ME, Jin Y, Murakami M, Wang J, Zhu Q, Davis W, Chen J, Ondracek RP, Khoury T, Gandhi S, Takabe K, Ko N, Sanderson M, Hong CC, Bandera EV, Craig DW, Ambrosone CB, Palmer JR, Zheng W, Carpten JD. “Mutational landscape of triple-negative breast cancer in African American women.” Nature Genetics (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02322-y
  • Nair NM, Mendicino L, Fiorica PN, Omilian AR, Khoury T, Bshara W, Bandera EV, Hong CC, Abdou Y, Freudenheim JL, Hennis AJM, O'Brien KM, Zirpoli G, Butler EN, Obafunwa J, Weinberg CR, Huo D, Bingshan L, Guo X, Palmer JR, Haiman CA, Zheng W, Yao S, Ambrosone CB. “The African-specific variant in the Duffy Antigen Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) gene, CD8+ T-cell density and Aggressive Breast Cancer Subtypes in Black Women.” Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention. (2025), https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-25-0454.
  • Fiorica PN, Golmard L, Kim J, Bao R, Lin FY, Roy A, Pribnow A, Perrino MR, Masliah-Planchon J, Michalak-Provost S, Wong J, Filser M, Stoppa-Lyonnet D, Bourdeaut F, Brahimi A, Ingster O, Sholler GS, Jackson SA, Sasaki MM, Fowler T, Ng A, Corbett RJ, Kaufman RS, Haley JS, Carey DJ, Huang K, Diskin SJ, Rokita JL, Al-Kateb H, McGee RB, Schiffman JD, Chen KS, Stewart DR, Parsons DW, Plon SE, Schultz KAP, Onel K. “Germline Pathogenic DROSHA Variants Are Linked to Pineoblastoma and Wilms Tumor Predisposition.” Clinical Cancer Research (2025), https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-2785.
  • Gao G, McClellan J, Barbeira AN, Fiorica PN, Li JL, Mu P, Olopade OI, Huo D, Im HK. “A splicing-based cross-tissue transcriptome-wide association study identifies susceptibility genes for breast cancer.” The American Journal of Human Genetics (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.04.010
  • Fiorica PN, Sheng H, Zhu Q, Roh JM, Laurent CA, Ergas IJ, Delmerico J, Kwan ML, Kushi LH, Ambrosone CB, Yao S. A Mendelian Randomization Analysis of 55 Genetically Predicted Metabolic Traits with Breast Cancer Survival Outcomes in the Pathways Study. Cancer Research Communications. 2023 Jun 22;3(6):1104-1112. doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-23-0047. 
  • Gao G*, Fiorica PN*, McClellan J*, Barbeira AN*, Li JL, Olopade OI, Im HK, Huo D. A joint transcriptome-wide association study across multiple tissues identifies candidate breast cancer susceptibility genes. American Journal of Human Genetics. 2023 Jun 1;110(6):950-962. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.04.005. Epub 2023 May 9.
  • Grand'Maison A, Kohrn R, Omole E, Shah M, Fiorica P, Sims J, Ohm JE. Genetic and environmental reprogramming of the sarcoma epigenome. Advances in Pharmacology. 2023;96:283-317. doi: 10.1016/bs.apha.2022.10.001. Epub 2022 Nov 7.
  • Adedokun B, Du Z, Gao G, Ahearn TU, Lunetta KL, Zirpoli G, Figueroa J, John EM, Bernstein L, Zheng W, Hu JJ, Ziegler RG, Nyante S, Bandera EV, Ingles SA, Press MF, Deming SL, Rodriguez-Gill JL, Yao S, Ogundiran TO, Ojengbede O, Blot W, Troester MA, Nathanson KL, Hennis A, Nemesure B, Ambs S, Fiorica PN, Sucheston-Campbell LE, Bensen JT, Kushi LH, Torres-Mejia G, Hu D, Fejerman L, Bolla MK, Dennis J, Dunning AM, Easton DF, Michailidou K, Pharoah PDP, Wang Q, Sandler DP, Taylor JA, Brien KM, Kitahara CM, Falusi AG, Babalola C, Yarney J, Awuah B, Wiafe BA, the GBHS Study Team, Chanock SJ, Olshan AF, Ambrosone CB, Conti DV, Ziv E, Olopade OI, Garcia-Closas M, Palmer JR, Haiman CA, Huo D. “Cross-ancestry GWAS meta-analysis identifies six new loci for breast cancer in women of African and European ancestry.” Nature Communications. 12, 4198 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24327-x 
  • Fiorica PN, Schubert R, Morris JD, Abdul Sami M, Wheeler HE (2020) Multi-ethnic transcriptome-wide association study of prostate cancer. PLoS ONE 15(9):e0236209. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236209 
  • Fiorica PN, Wheeler HE. 2019. Transcriptome association studies of neuropsychiatric traits in African Americans implicate PRMT7 in schizophrenia. PeerJ 7:e7778. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7778 
  • Greene CJ, Sharma NJ, Fiorica PN, Forrester E, Smith GS, Gross KW, Kauffman EC. “Suppressive effects of iron chelation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and their dependency on VHL inactivation.” Free Radical Biology and Medicine. 2019 Mar; 133:295-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2018.12.013

*-Indicates equal contribution

Professional Meeting & Conferences/Abstracts Presented

  • Fiorica PN, Mendicino L, Jia G, Zhu X, Omilian AR, Bandera EV, Hennis AJM, O'Brien K, Zirpoli G, Butler EN, Obafunwa J, Weinberg CR, Huo D, Li B, Guo X, Haiman C, Palmer JR, Zheng W, Ambrosone CB, Yao S. "Local ancestry-specific genetic architecture of breast cancer risk in 40,000 women of African ancestry from the AABCG Consortium." American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting. 17 October 2025, Boston, MA.
  • Roy AM, Fiorica P, Hill JW, Huang X, Sheng H, Roh JM, Laurent C, Ergas IJ, Zhu Q, Kwan ML, Ambrosone CB, Kushi LH, Yao S. "Genetic predictors of 16,000 multi-omic traits and associations with breast cancer survival outcomes in the Pathways Study." American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. 28 May 2025, Chicago, IL.
  • Fiorica PN, Mendicino L, Yan L, Omilian AR, Bandera EV, Abrams SI, Kushi LH, Khoury T, Ambrosone CB, Yao S. "Ancestral and genetic determinants of pathologic tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in a large multi-ethnic population of women with breast cancer." American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. 21 April 2025, San Diego, CA.
  • Zeinomar N, Fiorica P, Perlstein M, Satagopan J, Hong CC, Demissie K, Qin B, Ambrosone CB, Bandera EV, Yao S. "Association of Breast Cancer Polygenic Risk Scores and Survival in a Cohort of Black Breast Cancer Survivors." American Society of Preventive Oncology Annual Meeting. 6-8 April 2025, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Fiorica PN, Zimbalist A, Sheng H, Laurent CA, Roh JM, Lee VS, Ergas IJ, Delmerico J, Zhu Q, Cheng RK, Rillamas-Sun E, Iribarren C, Rana JS, Nguyen-Huynh M, Hershman DL, Kwan ML, Greenlee H, Ambrosone CB, Kushi LH, Yao S. "Mendelian randomization analysis of 27 cardiometabolic traits-related polygenic scores identifies genetic risk for cardiometabolic and cardiovascular events in a large prospective study of breast cancer survivors. " American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, 8 April 2024, San Diego, CA
  • Fiorica P, Barbeira AN, McClellan J, Im H, Huo D, Gao G. “Joint intron splicing-based transcriptome-wide association study identifies new candidate susceptibility genes for breast cancer.” Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 18 October 2021, Virtual. 
  • Fiorica PN, Wheeler HE. “Gene-based association study of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in African Americans.” World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics. 29 October 2019, Los Angeles, CA. 
  • Fiorica PN, Abdul Sami M, Morris JD, Wheeler HE. “Transcriptome-wide association study in African Americans identifies associations with prostate cancer.” Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 17 October 2019, Houston, TX. 
  • Fiorica PN, Mogil LS, Wheeler HE. “Predicting the genetic regulation of schizophrenia in African American Populations.” Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics. 16 October 2019. San Diego, CA. 
  • Siff T, Greene C, Sharma N, Fiorica P, Menon A, Smith G, Gross K, Kauffman E. “The Primary Iron Uptake Receptor, Transferrin Receptor 1, Mediates HIF-2α Overexpression and proliferation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma cells.” Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association. 4 May 2019, Chicago, IL.