Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Meeting

DCEG researchers were well represented during the Seventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention in Washington, DC, in November. This year’s program highlighted the role of tissue injury, stem cells, infection, novel chemopreventive agents, molecular targeting, clinical trials, obesity, and behavioral research in cancer prevention. The plenary sessions focused on molecular targets in cancer prevention, international cancer prevention, tumor microenvironment and inflammation, communications, and integrative prevention.

DCEG researchers were featured in several key sessions. Mitchell H. Gail, M.D., Ph.D., a senior investigator in the Biostatistics Branch, compared the discriminatory accuracy of the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT) to a model including risks reported from seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with breast cancer. He found little improvement in discriminatory accuracy from adding the seven SNPs to BCRAT. Sara Karami, M.P.H., a doctoral student in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB), evaluated the relation of genetic variation in the intracellular vitamin D receptor and other pathway genes to renal cell carcinoma etiology. During a press conference on renal cell carcinoma, Lee E. Moore, Ph.D., a tenure-track investigator in OEEB, fielded questions on her finding that lipid metabolism-peroxidation genes modify susceptibility to sporadic kidney cancer, particularly cases that are not explained by known risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, and smoking.

Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., Director of the Core Genotyping Facility and Chief of the Laboratory of Translational Genomics, spoke on the promise of genome-wide association studies in discovering new regions on the genome that are associated with specific diseases and traits, exploring new candidate genes and pathways in disease etiology, and making individual and public health decisions utilizing genetic markers for prediction of disease risk.

Challenging recent conventional thinking, Eric A. Engels, M.D., M.P.H., a senior investigator in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, gave several reasons why using sensitive molecular techniques, such as polymerase chain reaction, may not suffice in proving causal relationships between viruses and cancer. He emphasized the importance of traditional epidemiologic studies in complementing laboratory investigations.

Jackie A. Lavigne, Ph.D., M.P.H., Chief, Office of Education (OE), presented training opportunities in the Division as part of a special session on NCI Opportunities for Junior Investigators. Dr. Jonathan S. Wiest, Director of the new NCI Center for Cancer Training, led the panel discussion with assistance from Dr. Jessica M. Faupel-Badger, Assistant Director for the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program. To complement this session, Kristin Kiser, M.H.A., Fellowship Coordinator for OE, staffed the DCEG exhibit and spoke to graduate students about fellowships in DCEG.

In addition to speakers, DCEG staff were well represented in the poster sessions. Among the 26 poster presenters, some had been invited, including Scholar-in-Training Award recipient Neal D. Freedman, Ph.D., M.P.H., a postdoctoral fellow in the Nutritional Epidemiology Branch. His poster was titled “Association of menstrual and reproductive factors with the risk of upper gastrointestinal tract cancers in the NIH-AARP cohort.”

—Kristin Kiser, M.H.A.

Photo of the four DCEG Presenters: Eric Engels, Sara Karami, Jackie Lavigne, and Lee Moore. (Photograph Credit AACR/Todd Buchanan)