Biography

Dr. Brenner received her M.D. in 1992 from the Russian State Medical University (RSMU) in Moscow. She completed a Ph.D. in allergy and immunology in 1995 at RSMU and continued her post-doctoral research there in immunology. In 1998-1999, she completed an MPH program in Epidemiology at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. She joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch as a post-doctoral fellow in 1999 and became a staff scientist in 2004.

Research Interests

Dr. Brenner main scientific interests include epidemiology of thyroid and brain cancers, with a special focus on radiation exposure. By studying how radiation interacts with age, genetics, and the immune system, she hopes to improve understanding of radiation carcinogenesis of these tumors. Dr. Brenner’s interdisciplinary training in epidemiology, medicine and laboratory sciences allows her to pursue this goal by conducting epidemiological and molecular studies of irradiated populations. Dr. Brenner has a long-standing involvement in studies related to the Chornobyl accident.

Thyroid diseases following the Chornobyl accident

Dr. Brenner has been involved in studies of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases in relation to environmental I-131 (I-131) exposure due to the Chornobyl accident since 1999. These studies include three cohorts: Ukrainian (N=13,243) and Belorussian cohorts (N=11,970) of persons exposed during childhood, and Ukrainian cohort of persons exposed in utero (N=2,583). The unique feature of these cohorts is the availability of individual measurements of thyroid radioactivity shortly after the accident allowing high quality individual thyroid gland dose estimates and detailed dose-response analyses. Another remarkable feature of the studies is the quality of follow up and clinical data, since at least 80% of participants underwent multiple biennial thyroid examinations conducted by expert endocrinologists and ultrasonographers and contributed serum and urine samples for assessment of thyroid function. Dr. Brenner led several major dose-response analyses that contributed to our understanding of the long-term consequences of the Chornobyl accident. She is also involved in several molecular studies nested within the UA cohort that are focused on understanding dose-dependent gene expression and somatic mutations in Chornobyl-related thyroid cancers.

Etiology of brain cancers

While ionizing radiation is one of the few established risk factors in etiology of CNS tumors, many issues of radiation effects remain unresolved due to insufficient data in individual studies. Jointly with Dr. Inskip, Dr. Brenner proposed to conduct a pooled study of radiation exposed populations to better quantify the dose-response relationship for brain tumors. This study will increase power to assess the influence of age at exposure, temporal patterns of risk in terms of attained age and time since exposure, the effects of gender, and the effect of fractionated exposures. Driven by a desire to understand the contribution of the immune system to cancer development, Dr. Brenner led several analyses concerning risk of brain tumors in relation to a variety of immune-related conditions. In one of the first analyses in the field, she found a significant inverse relationship between self-reported history of allergies and autoimmune disease and risk of adult glioma. To further pursue what may account for such an association, Dr. Brenner jointly with Drs. Rajaraman and Inskip also analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a comprehensive set of innate immunity genes. Currently, Dr. Brenner is conducting a study of selected immunological markers in pre-diagnostic serum in relation to risk of glioma among U.S. active duty military personnel.

Keywords

Radiation, I-131, Chornobyl accident, thyroid cancer, brain cancer, interactions, genetic susceptibility, immune abnormalities.

Selected Publications

• Brenner AV, Tronko MD, Hatch M, Bogdanova TI, Oliynik VA, Lubin JH, Zablotska LB, Tereschenko VP, McConnell RJ, Zamotaeva GA, O'Kane P, Bouville AC, Chaykovskaya LV, Greenebaum E, Paster IP, Shpak VM, Ron E. I-131 Dose-Response for Incident Thyroid Cancers in Ukraine Related to the Chornobyl Accident. Environ Health Perspect 2011 Mar 14.
• Ron E, Brenner A. Non-malignant thyroid diseases after a wide range of radiation exposures. Radiat Res 2010 Dec;174(6):877-88. Review.
• Tronko MD, Brenner AV, Olijnyk VA, Robbins J, Epstein OV, McConnell RJ, Bogdanova TI, Fink DJ, Likhtarev IA, Lubin JH, Markov VV, Bouville AC, Terekhova GM, Zablotska LB, Shpak VM, Brill AB, Tereshchenko VP, Masnyk IJ, Ron E, Hatch M, Howe GR. Autoimmune thyroiditis and exposure to iodine 131 in the Ukrainian cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chornobyl accident: results from the first screening cycle (1998-2000). J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006 Nov;91(11):4344-51.
• Ostroumova E, Brenner A, Oliynyk V, McConnell R, Robbins J, Terekhova G, Zablotska L, Likhtarev I, Bouville A, Shpak V, Markov V, Masnyk I, Ron E, Tronko M, Hatch M. Subclinical hypothyroidism after radioiodine exposure: Ukrainian-American cohort study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases after the Chornobyl accident (1998-2000). Environ Health Perspect 2009 May;117(5):745-50.
• Hatch M, Brenner A, Bogdanova T, Derevyanko A, Kuptsova N, Likhtarev I, Bouville A, Tereshchenko V, Kovgan L, Shpak V, Ostroumova E, Greenebaum E, Zablotska L, Ron E, Tronko M. A screening study of thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases among individuals exposed in utero to iodine-131 from Chernobyl fallout. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2009 Mar;94(3):899-906.
• Leitzmann MF, Brenner A, Moore SC, Koebnick C, Park Y, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A, Ron E. Prospective study of body mass index, physical activity and thyroid cancer. Int J Cancer 2010 Jun 15;126(12):2947-56.
• Brenner AV, Linet MS, Shapiro WR, Selker RG, Fine HA, Black PM, Inskip PD. Season of birth and risk of brain tumors in adults. Neurology 2004 Jul 27;63(2):276-81.
• Yonehara S, Brenner AV, Kishikawa M, Inskip PD, Preston DL, Ron E, Mabuchi K, Tokuoka S. Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of first primary tumors of the central nervous system and related organs among atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1958-1995. Cancer 2004 Oct 1;101(7):1644-54.
• Brenner AV, Butler MA, Wang SS, Ruder AM, Rothman N, Schulte PA, Chanock SJ, Fine HA, Linet MS, Inskip PD. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in selected cytokine genes and risk of adult glioma. Carcinogenesis 2007 Dec;28(12):2543-7.
• Rajaraman P*, Brenner AV*, Butler MA, Wang SS, Pfeiffer RM, Ruder AM, Linet MS, Yeager M, Wang Z, Orr N, Fine HA, Kwon D, Thomas G, Rothman N, Inskip PD, Chanock SJ. Common variation in genes related to innate immunity and risk of adult glioma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009 May;18(5):1651-8.
  *Both authors contributed equally to this work.
• Rajaraman P, Brenner AV, Neta G, Pfeiffer R, Wang SS, Yeager M, Thomas G, Fine HA, Linet MS, Rothman N, Chanock SJ, Inskip PD. Risk of meningioma and common variation in genes related to innate immunity. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010 May;19(5):1356-61.
• Bassig BA, Inskip PD, Burdette L, Shapiro WR, Selker RG, Fine HA, Loeffler JS, Black PM, Dubrow R, Brenner AV. Selected human leukocyte antigen class II polymorphisms and risk of adult glioma. J Neuroimmunol 2011 Apr;233(1-2):185-91.
• Brenner AV, Linet MS, Fine HA, Shapiro WR, Selker RG, Black PM, Inskip PD. History of allergies and autoimmune diseases and risk of brain tumors in adults. Int J Cancer 2002 May 10;99(2):252-9.
• Brenner AV, Linet MS, Selker RG, Shapiro WR, Black PM, Fine HA, Inskip PD. Polio vaccination and risk of brain tumors in adults: no apparent association. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2003 Feb;12(2):177-8.
• Inskip PD, Tarone RE, Brenner AV, Fine HA, Black PM, Shapiro WR, Selker RG, Linet MS. Handedness and risk of brain tumors in adults. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2003 Mar;12(3):223-5.

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• Kiyo Mabuchi, Maureen Hatch, Evgenia Ostroumova, Elizabeth Khaykin, Jay Lubin, Vladimir Drozdovich, Mark Little, Andre Bouville, Alice Sigurdson, Ruth Pfeiffer, Gila Neta, Sara Schonfeld, Peter Inskip, Preetha Rajaraman, Stephen Chanock, Amy Hutchinson, Meredith Yeager, Charles Rabkin, Sanjeeve Balasubramaniam.

Other Scientific Collaborators

• Kyoji Furukawa, Ph.D., Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan.
• Arthur Schneider, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL.
• Yuri Nikiforov, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
• Michael Abend, M.D., Bundeswehr Institute of Radiobiology, the University of Ulm, Germany.
• Dale Preston, Ph.D., Hirosoft International, Eureka, CA.
• Mykola Tronko, M.D., Ph.D., Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Kiev, UA.
• Florent de Vathaire, Ph.D., INSERM, Institue Gustave Roussy, France.
• Alexandr Rozhko, M.D., Ph.D., Republican Research Center for Radiation Medicine and Human Ecology, Gomel, BY.
• Jennifer Rusiecki, Ph.D., Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD.
• Kangmin Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., U.S. Military Cancer Institute, Washington, DC.
• Elisabeth J. Rushing, M.D., Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC.
• Parveen Bhatti, Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA.
• Lene Veiga, Ph.D., Institute of Radiation Protection and Dosimetry, Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Cecile Ronckers, M.Sc., Ph.D., Epidemiologist, Dutch Childhood Oncology Group.
• Haarmen Bijwaard, Ph.D., National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands.
• Lydia Zablotska, M.D., Ph.D., University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.