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- GWAS: Toward a Comprehensive Understanding of Cancer Causation
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- Kenneth Cantor Retires
- Staff Receive NIH Merit Awards
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Kenneth Cantor Retires
Kenneth P. Cantor, Ph.D., M.P.H., retired in April from the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch (OEEB) after a 29-year career at NCI. "Dr. Cantor has contributed enormously to the research and training programs in environmental epidemiology at NCI. Without question, he is the leading authority on cancer associated with pollutants in the drinking water," noted Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr., M.D., DCEG Director.
Debra Silverman, Kenneth Cantor, and Joseph Fraumeni. (Photograph credit: Jennifer Loukissas)
After earning a B.S. in physics from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Cantor conducted postdoctoral research on the structure of metaphase chromosomes. He subsequently pursued his interests in public health, earning an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health, where he focused on environmental exposures and related disease. Dr. Cantor then worked in the Health Research Division of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 1976, he was detailed from EPA to NCI to pursue research in environmental epidemiology, and he officially transferred to NCI in 1980.
Dr. Cantor fostered a collegial work environment, collaborating with investigators worldwide and mentoring numerous young scientists. He substantially increased our understanding of the cancer hazards of occupational exposure to pesticides and of general population exposure to drinking water contaminants, especially disinfection byproducts and arsenic. He was one of the first to detect an association between disinfection byproducts and bladder cancer in an analytic study, and he confirmed this discovery in various geographic locations. He recently showed that genetic markers of susceptibility greatly enhance dose-related risk of bladder cancer after disinfection byproducts exposure, providing a sound mechanistic rationale for the association. He also investigated whether exposure to disinfection byproducts increases the risk for other cancers, such as those of the colon, rectum, and brain.
Dr. Cantor's knowledge is apparent in the more than 180 scientific papers he has published. His expertise has been recognized by his service on interagency working groups, committees of the National Academy of Sciences, and monograph working groups at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, as well as by numerous invitations to present his research findings in many venues.
Dr. Cantor will spend his retirement enjoying and expanding his lifelong interest in music. He will continue investigating environmental risk factors for cancer, as well as their interactions with genetic susceptibility, as a part-time advisor to OEEB.
—Debra T. Silverman, Sc.D., Sc.M.
