- Linkage Home
- The Vitamin D Pooling Project: Examining Relationships to Cancer
- DCEG Scientist Appears in NCI Cancer Bulletin Video
- DCEG Gains Two Earl Stadtman Investigators
- Shahinaz Gadalla Receives Merit Award
- DCEG Welcomes Visiting Scholar Ross Prentice
- New Freezer Improves Efficiency and Storage Capacity of DCEG Biospecimen Repository
- DCEG Hosts Distinguished Lecturer David Christiani
- Report Published on DCEG's Research on the Marshall Islands
- Agricultural Health Study Team Members Receive Award
- Workshop on Male Breast Cancer Kicks Off Pooling Project
- Radiation Epidemiology Branch Investigators Present at Conference
- Workshop Tackles Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the Unites States
- Registry Database Studies Working Group
- DCEG Staff Contribute to the Society for Epidemiologic Research Meeting
- Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Group
- NIH Recognizes 2011 FARE Winners
- DCEG Outstanding Research Papers of 2009
- 2010 DCEG Summer Fellows Recognition and Poster Event
- DCEG Investigators Participate in Papillomavirus Conference
- DCEG Staff Win Plain Language Awards
- DCEG Fellows Present at the 2010 NIH Spring Research Festival
- Scientific Highlights
- Major Editorials, Commentaries, and Reviews by DCEG Scientists
- DCEG People in the News
- Stephanie Weinstein Wins Merit Award
- Marianne Henderson Honored by International Repositories Society
- Comings … Goings
- DCEG Participates in Radiation and Health Conference
- Todd Gibson Defends Dissertation
- DCEG Staff Receive NIH Director's Awards
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Honors Stephen Chanock
DCEG Welcomes Visiting Scholar Ross Prentice
DCEG hosted Dr. Ross L. Prentice as a Visiting Scholar in June. Dr. Prentice is Director of the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington and a professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health. DCEG recognized Dr. Prentice for his vision and pioneering research contributions in biostatistics, epidemiology, and methods development.
Dr. Prentice obtained his B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Toronto. Early in his career, he received the American Public Health Association's Mortimer Spiegelman Award for outstanding achievement by a young public health statistician. More recently, he has received the American Association of Cancer Research/American Cancer Society Award for research excellence in epidemiology and prevention as well as Harvard University's Marvin Zelen Leadership Award for exceptional leadership that has influenced the theory and practice of statistical science. In addition, Dr. Prentice has received the President's Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies and the R. A. Fisher Lectureship in recognition of his seminal work on statistical methods. Dr. Prentice is a member of the Institute of Medicine at the U.S. National Academies.
Dr. Prentice currently serves as principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Clinical Coordinating Center for the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which oversees a clinical trial and observational cohort study with more than 161,000 participants. These studies have examined the effects of hormone replacement therapy and dietary intake, including vitamin D and calcium supplementation, in the prevention of breast and colorectal cancer as well as other health outcomes. He also heads the WHI Statistical Methods for Medical Studies project, which focuses on developing statistical methods for disease prevention, epidemiological studies, and biomarker research.
Robert N. Hoover, M.D., Sc.D., Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, welcomed Dr. Prentice and applauded him for the breadth and depth of his research. In his introduction, Dr. Hoover noted, “Statisticians know Dr. Prentice for his groundbreaking methods development and his refinement across multiple areas of statistics. Epidemiologists and clinical trialists know him as a paradigm-shifting methodologist leading to high-impact research. There are few people who would be on the short list of leaders in all three of these fields.”
During his Visiting Scholar seminar, Dr. Prentice addressed the benefits and challenges of conducting intervention trials. He presented his research from the WHI Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Trials, which examined health outcomes among postmenopausal women receiving estrogen and progestin and revealed an increased risk among these women for coronary heart disease and invasive breast cancer. These findings led to a dramatic change in clinical practice, with millions of women stopping the use of hormone therapy, resulting in a decline in national breast cancer rates. Dr. Prentice also discussed dietary assessments and the development of biomarkers for nutrients and physical activity, and he outlined the need for enhanced preventive intervention studies as well as large-scale collaborative efforts to understand a broad spectrum of chronic diseases.
Following the seminar, DCEG tenure-track investigators met with Dr. Prentice during a brown-bag luncheon. The discussion, facilitated by Hormuzd A. Katki, Ph.D., Biostatistics Branch (BB), touched on the challenges of balancing time between scientific and administrative duties and transitioning to senior-level positions.
Dr. Prentice participated in two seminars during the afternoon. The first, led by Nutritional Epidemiology Branch investigators Amanda J. Cross, Ph.D., and Charles Matthews, Ph.D., focused on the role of biomarkers for dietary assessments as well as on measurement tools for physical activity and ways to attenuate measurement error.
In a session hosted by BB senior investigator Barry I. Graubard, Ph.D., Dr. Prentice spoke on “Statistical issues in epidemiologic studies and randomized trials.” He highlighted data analysis, outcome measures, and study design in the WHI Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Trials. In particular, he discussed the challenges of determining clinical endpoints and the need for intermediate or surrogate measures. The discussion closed with comments on the analysis of high-dimensional biologic data, such as that generated by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and methods for correcting methodological bias.
The following morning, Dr. Prentice participated in a seminar on “high-density 'omics'” chaired by Dr. Hoover. During the seminar, Dr. Prentice presented his work in genomic and proteomic studies. He then ended the day by meeting individually with Joseph F. Fraumeni, Jr., M.D., Division Director, Nilanjan Chatterjee, Ph.D., Chief of BB, and BB investigator Sholom Wacholder, Ph.D.
Reflecting on his program as a Visiting Scholar, Dr. Prentice said, “I had a marvelous visit to DCEG. We spent much of the time discussing topics in genomics, proteomics, methods development, and nutritional and physical activity biomarkers as they relate to population aspects of cancer research. Many of the leading experts in these areas reside at NCI, especially in DCEG. It was most enjoyable to be immersed in this stimulating environment for these two days.”
—Saloni Nayar, M.P.H.
