Expert Panel Workshop on Early-Life Events and Cancer

by Rebecca Troisi, Sc.D., Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program

In May, DCEG and the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) sponsored an Expert Panel Workshop on Early-Life Events and Cancer. The event was organized by Workshop Steering Committee members Robert N. Hoover, M.D., Sc.D., Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program (EBP); Martha S. Linet, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch; Somdat Mahabir, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the DCCPS Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program; Nancy Potischman, Ph.D., from the DCCPS Applied Research Program; and Rebecca Troisi, Sc.D. (EBP). The primary aim of the workshop was to stimulate and facilitate epidemiologic and molecular research into early-life influences on cancer development in adulthood.

Robert Croyle, Ph.D., Director of DCCPS, started the day by highlighting the significant public and scientific interest in the role of early-life events in cancer and other chronic diseases. He noted that NCI has experienced an increase in requests for funding in this area of research. Dr. Mahabir then gave an overview of the workshop's objectives, which included reviewing the epidemiologic and experimental evidence for early-life events in the cause of various forms of cancer and identifying ways to overcome the methodological challenges in this area of cancer research.

The workshop included presentations by Dr. Hoover and seven members of the expert panel, including Dr. Kjersti Aagaard-Tillery, Baylor College of Medicine; Lucy Anderson, Ph.D., formerly of the NCI Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis; Dr. Zdenko Herceg, International Agency for Research on Cancer; Dr. Robert Hiatt, University of California, San Francisco, Comprehensive Cancer Center; Dr. Daniel Medina, Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Steinar Tretli, Cancer Registry of Norway; and Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, Harvard School of Public Health. The presentations addressed a wide range of topics, including the usefulness of animal models to study in utero exposures, potential biological mechanisms mediating prenatal exposures and cancer risk, and statistical tools and epidemiologic approaches that might elucidate events in the disease process.

In the afternoon, the panel and experts from NCI met to address methodological challenges, identify data gaps, and make recommendations about scientific opportunities, resource needs, and potential funding initiatives. The group's deliberations included a discussion of the need for epidemiologic, clinical, and animal model studies and, especially, interdisciplinary strategies. A summary of the proceedings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

For more information, please go to http://go.usa.gov/8UZ.