Energy balance—the difference between dietary energy intake and energy expended through physical activity and resting metabolism—is thought to increase the risk of several important cancers, including colon, post-menopausal breast, endometrium, kidney, and esophagus.
The high prevalence of obesity and physical inactivity is a worldwide public health issue, yet the mechanisms by which energy imbalance and obesity cause cancer remain unclear. MEB investigators are pursuing several approaches to address these issues, including:
- Improvement of assessment tools for diet, physical activity, and body size, in order to disentangle these interrelated exposures;
- Performance of etiologic studies in high-risk populations (e.g., South Asians);
- Studies of biochemical mechanisms, including the use of high-throughput multiplex assays of possible obesity-related biomarkers (such as inflammatory markers/cytokines, metabolic hormones, and sex hormones).
A wide variety of studies are conducted using the following cohorts:
- Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention (ATBC) Study
- Case-Control Study of Renal Cell Cancer among Caucasians and African Americans in the United States
- NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study
- Prostate, Lung, Colon, and Ovary Prospective Study
- Shanghai Women's Health Study
- Testicular Cancer among Military Servicemen: the STEED Study
- U.S. Radiologic Technologists Cohort (USRT)