Erikka Loftfield Departs DCEG
Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H.
In May 2026, Erikka Loftfield, Ph.D., M.P.H., Earl Stadtman Tenure-Track Investigator in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch (MEB), departed DCEG to begin a new position as leader of the Integrative Nutritional Epidemiology Group at Queensland Institute of Medical Research Berghofer in Brisbane, Australia.
Since joining the Division as a graduate student in 2013, Dr. Loftfield led research that focused on the interplay between diet, metabolism, the microbiome, and genetics as they relate to cancer risk. Through her integrative research program, she developed methods and used novel technologies to improve dietary assessment. Her work advanced knowledge of how diet affects cancer risk—a relationship that has long been difficult to study because of the challenge of accurately measuring complex diets. She pioneered a new way to objectively assess diet, including intake of ultra-processed foods, by measuring metabolites in blood and urine.
Dr. Loftfield also carried out research using large prospective cohorts to investigate how diet and microbiome-related compounds affect cancer risk. Her work advanced understanding of the relationships between dietary factors associated with cancer risk, such as coffee, fiber, and alcohol, and circulating metabolites, including bile acids.
Using prospective data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, Dr. Loftfield found that women with higher concentrations of circulating bile acids had an increased risk of colorectal cancer. She also led and contributed to large studies that linked higher circulating bile acid concentrations with increased risk of liver cancer and liver disease mortality. Her research in PLCO also found that people who stopped drinking alcohol had a lower colorectal adenoma risk while heavier lifetime drinking was linked with higher colorectal cancer risk, especially for rectal cancer.
Dr. Loftfield’s studies on coffee and tea drinking in the UK Biobank revealed that coffee and tea drinking were linked with lower risk of death. The studies also refuted the hypothesis that a person’s genetic capacity to metabolize caffeine affects that risk. These findings provide new evidence that compounds other than caffeine drive the observed link between coffee and tea drinking and lower risk of death.
At the same time, Dr. Loftfield’s team published the first large prospective investigation of hot beverage temperature and esophageal cancer risk in a Western population, contributing robust evidence that very hot beverage temperature was a risk factor for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in the UK.
Dr. Loftfield earned an M.P.H. in chronic disease epidemiology in 2012 and a Ph.D. in epidemiology in 2015, both from Yale University. She joined DCEG in 2013 through the Yale University–NCI Partnership Training Program. In 2015 she transitioned to a postdoctoral fellowship and in 2016 was promoted to research fellow. She was selected as an Earl Stadtman tenure-track investigator in MEB and an NIH Distinguished Scholar in 2020.
In recognition of her scientific contributions, Dr. Loftfield received numerous awards for her work, including the NIH and DCEG Fellows Award for Research Excellence, the NCI Director’s Intramural Innovation Award, the Office of Dietary Supplements Research Scholars Program Award, and the DCEG Outstanding Research Paper by a Fellow.