This special issue features the research of four Beginning Investigator Grant for Catalytic Research (BIG Cat) awardees.  The cancer burden in Africa continues to grow rapidly, due in part to the dearth of research into understanding the determinants of this disease among African populations and the limited human resources that are available on the continent.  These four articles cover topics such as the risk of depression among patients with advanced cancer, racial disparities in cervical cancer burden and the relation between selenium and the incidence of gastric cancer in Zambia.

The spectrum of these studies exemplifies the overarching goal of the BIG Cat initiative, founded by the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) and supported by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Center for Global Health (CGH) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as well as institutional and industrial partners.  The hope is that many more African cancer early-stage investigators will take this opportunity to accelerate their cancer research career and contribute to developing strategies that will control the burden of cancer in Africa.