Cancer Epidemiology Research Program

The Cancer Epidemiology Research Program aims to improve our understanding of the genetic and environmental origins of cancer and to identify biomarkers for cancer risk and progression. This understanding informs the design of effective cancer prevention and control programs.

RESEARCH THEMES

Investigators in the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program concentrate on four main themes:

Molecular & Genetic Epidemiology

Identifying genetic factors linked to cancer susceptibility

Nutrition, Lifestyle, & Environment

Evaluating the impact of dietary, lifestyle, and environmental factors on cancer risk

Prognostic Factors

Identifying genetic and lifestyle factors that predict cancer survival and recurrence

Global Health & Health Disparities

Understanding the differences in cancer risk and mortality in different populations

Meet the Program Members

The Cancer Epidemiology Research Program is co-led by Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., and Martha J. Shrubsole, Ph.D. The co-leaders serve as liaisons to the director and senior leadership for the fostering of inter-programmatic collaboration and integration of cancer epidemiology into the clinical and basic research activities of the cancer center, including the provision of epidemiologic resources and access to large study populations for whom the translation of scientific discoveries into practice is important.

Program Leader

Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.

Program Leader

Martha J. Shrubsole, Ph.D.

All Program Members

Featured Publications

Aberrant Activation of TCL1A Promotes Stem Cell Expansion in Clonal Haematopoiesis.

Weinstock, J.S., Gopakumar, J., Burugula, B.B., Uddin, M.M., Jahn, N., Belk, J.A., Bouzid, H., Daniel, B., Miao, Z., Ly, N., Mack, T.M., Luna, S.E., Prothro, K.P., Mitchell, S.R., Laurie, C.A., Broome, J.G., Taylor, K.D., Guo, X., Sinner, M.F., von Falkenhausen, A.S., Kääb, S., Shuldiner, A.R., O'Connell, J.R., Lewis, J.P., Boerwinkle, E., Barnes, K.C., Chami, N., Kenny, E.E., Loos, R.J.F., Fornage, M., Hou, L., Lloyd-Jones, D.M., Redline, S., Cade, B.E., Psaty, B.M., Bis, J.C., Brody, J.A., Silverman, E.K., Yun, J.H., Qiao, D., Palmer, N.D., Freedman, B.I., Bowden, D.W., Cho, M.H., DeMeo, D.L., Vasan, R.S., Yanek, L.R., Becker, L.C., Kardia, S.L.R., Peyser, P.A., He, J., Rienstra, M., Van der Harst, P., Kaplan, R., Heckbert, S.R., Smith, N.L., Wiggins, K.L., Arnett, D.K., Irvin, M.R., Tiwari, H., Cutler, M.J., Knight, S., Muhlestein, J.B., Correa, A., Raffield, L.M., Gao, Y., de Andrade, M., Rotter, J.I., Rich, S.S., Tracy, R.P., Konkle, B.A., Johnsen, J.M., Wheeler, M.M., Smith, J.G., Melander, O., Nilsson, P.M., Custer, B.S., Duggirala, R., Curran, J.E., Blangero, J., McGarvey, S., Williams, L.K., Xiao, S., Yang, M., Gu, C.C., Chen, Y.I., Lee, W.J., Marcus, G.M., Kane, J.P., Pullinger, C.R., Shoemaker, M.B., Darbar, D., Roden, D.M. (ZY), Albert, C., Kooperberg, C., Zhou, Y., Manson, J.E., Desai, P., Johnson, A.D., Mathias, R.A., Blackwell, T.W., Abecasis, G.R., Smith, A.V., Kang, H.M., Satpathy, A.T., Natarajan, P., Kitzman, J.O., Whitsel, E.A., Reiner, A.P., Bick, A.G. (CE) & Jaiswal, S.

Nature 2023; PMID:37046083.

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Population Genomic Screening for Three Common Hereditary Conditions : a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

Guzauskas, G.F., Garbett, S., Zhou, Z., Schildcrout, J.S., Graves, J.A. (CO), Williams, M.S., Hao, J., Jones, L.K., Spencer, S.J., Jiang, S., Veenstra, D.L. & Peterson, J.F. (CE).

Ann Intern Med 2023; PMID:37155986.

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Reduction in Total and Major Cause-Specific Mortality from Tobacco Smoking Cessation: a Pooled analysis of 16 Population-Based Cohort Studies in Asia.

Yang, J.J., Yu, D., Shu, X.O. (CE), Wen, W., Rahman, S., Abe, S., Saito, E., Gupta, P.C., He, J., Tsugane, S., Gao, Y.T., Yuan, J.M., Koh, W.P., Sadakane, A., Tomata, Y., Tsuji, I., Sugawara, Y., Matsuo, K., Ahn, Y.O., Park, S.K., Chen, Y., Inoue, M., Kang, D. & Zheng, W. (CE).

Int J Epidemiol 50(6):2070-2081, 2022; PMC8743132.

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Dietary Polyphenols and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Prospective Southern Community Cohort Study.

Fike, L.T., Munro, H., Yu, D., Dai, Q. (CE) & Shrubsole, M.J. (CE).

Am J Clin Nutr 2022; PMID:35044416.

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Distinct Genomic Landscapes in Early-Onset and Late-Onset Endometrial Cancer.

Choi, J., Holowatyj, A.N. (CE), Du, M., Chen, Z., Wen, W., Schultz, N., Lipworth, L. (CE) & Guo, X. (CE).

JCO Precis Oncol 6:e2100401, 2022; PMID:35108035.

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Cost-Effectiveness of Population-Wide Genomic Screening for Lynch Syndrome in the United States.

Guzauskas, G.F., Jiang, S., Garbett, S., Zhou, Z., Spencer, S.J., Snyder, S.R., Graves, J.A. (CO), Williams, M.S., Hao, J., Peterson, J.F. (CE) & Veenstra, D.L.

Genet Med 2022; PMID:35227606.

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Incorporating Polygenic Risk Scores and Nongenetic Risk Factors for Breast Cancer Risk Prediction among Asian Women.

Yang, Y., Tao, R., Shu, X., Cai, Q. (CE), Wen, W., Gu, K., Gao, Y.T., Zheng, Y., Kweon, S.S., Shin, M.H., Choi, J.Y., Lee, E.S., Kong, S.Y., Park, B., Park, M.H., Jia, G., Li, B. (CE), Kang, D., Shu, X.O. (CE), Long, J. (CE) & Zheng, W. (CE).

JAMA Netw Open 5(3):e2149030, 2022; PMID:35311964.

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Prediagnosis Leisure-Time Physical Activity and Lung Cancer Survival: a Pooled Analysis of 11 Cohorts.

Yang, J.J., Yu, D. (CE), White, E., Lee, D.H., Blot, W., Robien, K., Sinha, R., Park, Y., Takata, Y., Gao, Y.T., Smith-Byrne, K., Monninkhof, E.M., Kaaks, R., Langhammer, A., Borch, K.B., Al-Shaar, L., Lan, Q., Sørgjerd, E.P., Zhang, X., Zhu, C., Chirlaque, M.D., Severi, G., Overvad, K., Sacerdote, C., Aune, D., Johansson, M., Smith-Warner, S.A., Zheng, W. (CE) & Shu, X.O. (CE).

JNCI Cancer Spectr 6(2), 2022; PMID:35603841.

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CD4/CD8 Ratio and Cancer Risk Among Adults with HIV.

Castilho, J.L., Bian, A., Jenkins, C.A., Shepherd, B.E., Sigel, K., Gill, M.J., Kitahata, M.M., Silverberg, M.J., Mayor, A.M., Coburn, S.B., Wiley, D., Achenbach, C.J., Marconi, V.C., Bosch, R.J., Horberg, M.A., Rabkin, C.S., Napravnik, S., Novak, R.M., Mathews, W.C., Thorne, J.E., Sun, J., Althoff, K.N., Moore, R.D., Sterling, T.R. & Sudenga, S.L. (CE).

J Natl Cancer Inst 2022; PMID:35292820.

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Evaluating Breast Cancer Predisposition Genes in Women of African Ancestry.

Díaz-Zabala, H., Guo, X. (CE), Ping, J., Wen, W., Shu, X.O. (CE), Long, J. (CE), Lipworth, L. (CE), Li, B. (CE), Fadden, M.K., Pal, T. (BC), Blot, W.J., Cai, Q. (CE), Haiman, C.A., Palmer, J.R., Sanderson, M. & Zheng, W. (CE).

Genet Med 2022; PMID:35396981.

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Higher Vitamin B6 Status is Associated with Improved Survival Among Patients with Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer.

Holowatyj, A.N. (CE), Ose, J., Gigic, B., Lin, T., Ulvik, A., Geijsen, A.J.M.R., Brezina, S., Kiblawi, R., van Roekel, E.H., Baierl, A., Böhm, J., Bours, M.J.L., Brenner, H., Breukink, S.O., Chang-Claude, J., de Wilt, J.H.W., Grady, W.M., Grünberger, T., Gumpenberger, T., Herpel, E., Hoffmeister, M., Keulen, E.T.P., Kok, D.E., Koole, J.L., Kosma, K., Kouwenhoven, E.A., Kvalheim, G., Li, C.I., Schirmacher, P., Schrotz-King, P., Singer, M.C., van Duijnhoven, F.J.B., van Halteren, H.K., Vickers, K., Vogelaar, F.J., Warby, C.A., Wesselink, E., Ueland, P.M., Ulrich, A.B., Schneider, M., Habermann, N., Kampman, E., Weijenberg, M.P., Gsur, A. & Ulrich, C.M.

Am J Clin Nutr 2022; PMID:35394006.

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Integration of Protein Structure and Population-Scale DNA Sequence Data for Disease Gene Discovery and Variant Interpretation.

Li, B. (CE), Jin, B., Capra, J.A. & Bush, W.S.

Annu Rev Biomed Data Sci 2022; PMID:35508071.

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Associations of Lung Cancer Risk with Biomarkers of Helicobacter Pylori Infection.

Yoon, H.S., Shu, X.O. (CE), Cai, H., Zheng, W. (CE), Wu, J., Wen, W., Courtney, R., Shidal, C., Waterboer, T., Blot, W.J. & Cai, Q. (CE).

Carcinogenesis 2022; PMID:35605986.

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A Computational Framework to Unify Orthogonal Information in DNA Methylation and Copy Number Aberrations in Cell-Free DNA for Early Cancer Detection.

Wei, Q., Jin, C., Wang, Y., Guo, S., Guo, X., Liu, X., An, J., Xing, J. & Li, B. (CE).

Brief Bioinformatics 2022; PMID:35649341.

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Integration of Multidimensional Splicing Data and GWAS Summary Statistics for Risk Gene Discovery.

Ji, Y., Wei, Q., Chen, R., Wang, Q., Tao, R. & Li, B. (CE).

PLoS Genet 18(6):e1009814, 2022; PMID:35771864.

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Assessing the Role of the Gut Microbiome at the Interface Between Environmental Chemical Exposures and Human Health: Current Knowledge and Challenges.

Campana, A.M., Laue, H.E., Shen, Y., Shrubsole, M.J. (CE) & Baccarelli, A.A.

Environ Pollut :120380, 2022; PMID:36220576.

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Association of Step Counts Over Time with the Risk of Chronic Disease in the All of Us Research Program.

Master, H., Annis, J., Huang, S., Beckman, J.A., Ratsimbazafy, F., Marginean, K., Carroll, R., Natarajan, K., Harrell, F.E., Roden, D.M. (ZY), Harris, P. (CE) & Brittain, E.L.

Nat Med 2022; PMID:36216933.

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Inherited Cancer Susceptibility Gene Sequence Variations Among Patients with Appendix Cancer.

Holowatyj, A.N. (CE), Washington, M.K. (GI), Tavtigian, S.V., Eng, C. (GI) & Horton, C.

JAMA Oncol 2022; PMID:36368039.

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Racial Disparities in Lung Cancer Stage of Diagnosis Among Adults Living in the Southeastern U.S.

Richmond, J., Murray, M.H., Milder, C.M., Blume, J.D. & Aldrich, M.C. (CE).

Chest 2022; PMID:36435265.

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Metabolomic Analysis of Renal Cell Carcinoma in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial.

McClain, K.M., Sampson, J.N., Petrick, J.L., Mazzilli, K.M., Gerszten, R.E., Clish, C.B., Purdue, M.P., Lipworth, L. (CE) & Moore, S.C.

Metabolites 12(12), 2022; PMID:36557227.

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Racial/Ethnic and Sex Differences in Somatic Cancer Gene Mutations Among Patients with Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer.

Holowatyj, A.N. (CE), Wen, W., Gibbs, T., Seagle, H.M., Keller, S.R., Velez Edwards, D.R. (CE), Washington, M.K. (GI), Eng, C. (GI), Perea, J., Zheng, W. (CE) & Guo, X. (CE).

Cancer Discov 2022; PMID:36520636.

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Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) of Circulating Vitamin D Outcomes Among Individuals of African Ancestry.

Parlato, L.A., Welch, R., Ong, I.M., Long, J. (CE), Cai, Q. (CE), Steinwandel, M.D., Blot, W.J., Zheng, W. (CE) & Warren Andersen, S.

Am J Clin Nutr 2022; PMID:36811574.

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