Dr.Cuzick's presentation was titled “The prevention of breast cancer: progress and obstacles”. He is head of the Center for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics at Cancer Research UK in London and John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary, University of London. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and has previously worked at Oxford University and Columbia University, New York. His current interests are in cancer epidemiology and clinical trials, with special interest in prevention and screening. He is Chairman of the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study (IBIS) Steering Group and is also involved in studies on the use of HPV assays for cervical screening, the use of flexible sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening and markers for the behavior of early prostate cancer. (Biography modified from Cancer Research UK)

Dr. Gretchen Gierach joined the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch (HREB) as a NCI Cancer Prevention Fellow in 2006. Dr. Gierach earned both her Masters in Public Health (2004) and Ph.D. (2006) degrees in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh with a focus in cancer epidemiology and women's health and a B.S. in Biobehavioral Health from the Pennsylvania State University (1998). Since joining HREB, Dr. Gierach has worked with Drs. Louise Brinton, Chief and Senior Investigator, HREB and Mark Sherman, Expert, HREB to launch the Breast Radiology Evaluation and Study of Tissues (or "BREAST") Stamp Project, a study within the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium. Within the BREAST Stamp Project as well as other studies, Dr. Gierach is investigating hormonal and molecular determinants of mammographic density, an intermediate marker of breast cancer risk. Dr. Gierach's other current projects include examining whether mammographic density differs between women at high and low genetic risk of developing breast cancer, and assessing overall and disease-specific mortality risk associated with gynecologic surgery within the Breast Cancer Detection and Demonstration Project. In 2008 she was awarded the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics Molecular Epidemiology Research Funding Award and the NCI Merit Award in Cancer Prevention Research Training.