The National Cancer Institute has awarded $700,000 to researchers from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Southern California and the University of California in San Francisco to study how structural racism effects lung cancer risks.

Lead researchers Lani Park and Iona Cheng from the UH Cancer Center intend to study the relationship between structural racism, through residential segregation and other measures, and racial and ethnic disparities in smoking and lung cancer risk.

The communities that will be studied include Native Hawaiians, African Americans, Japanese Americans and Latinos, according to a press release from the University of Hawaii issued Monday.

Researchers from the UH Cancer Center and the University of Southern California previously conducted the Multiethnic Cohort Study that found Native Hawaiians and African Americans had higher risk of developing lung cancer compared to white people, whereas Japanese Americans and Latinos had lower risks of lung cancer.