DCEG News Updates
The latest news and research findings from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
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Several DCEG staff were honored at the 2023 NCI Director’s Awards ceremony for lifetime career achievement, emerging leadership, service, and efforts to improve diversity, scientific support, and administrative support.
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Dr. Meredith Shiels, senior investigator in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch was elected to serve as a DCEG Women Scientist Advisor for a term of three years.
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NIH Intramural Research Program highlights Dr. Sinha's research on the health effects and cancer risk associated with red meat.
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Using the NCI’s HIV/AIDS Cancer Match Study data from 2001-2019, Jennifer McGee-Avila, postdoctoral fellow in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, finds that people with HIV are less likely to receive treatment for many different cancer types compared to people without HIV.
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Colleagues, friends, and family gathered at NCI Shady Grove to celebrate the career achievements and retirement of Bob Hoover. The St. Patrick's Day-themed event featured scientific talks from several speakers.
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Two DCEG fellows received awards at the 2024 American Society for Preventive Oncology (ASPO) Annual Meeting. Dr. Booker received an Outstanding Poster award from the ASPO Disparities Special Interest Group and Dr. Harris received a 2024 New Investigators Award.
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Common inherited genetic factors that predict cancer risk in the general population may also predict elevated risk of new cancers among childhood cancer survivors. Findings could potentially inform screening and long-term follow-up of those at greatest risk.
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Continual improvement of cervical cancer screening and management to include new technologies and approaches requires a flexible approach to guidelines. A description of the Enduring Guidelines effort—methods and principles to ensure swift adoption of changes—and a review and decision on the first new technology to be added to the guidelines—dual stain cytology—were published in the Journal of the Lower Genital Tract Diseases.
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Elizabeth Cahoon, Earl Stadtman investigator in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch and principal investigator of DCEG Research on Chernobyl, helms an innovative research program that uses the power of epidemiology to investigate how environmental radiation affects human health.
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Dr. Jackie Lavigne shares news from the Fellowship Program in the Division, including the launch of a new series of videos describing the advantages of training in DCEG.
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Dr. Michael Sargen co-leads the awarded project, which aims to better understand the causes of pediatric melanoma and identify treatment strategies.
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Lesley Chapman Hannah, postdoctoral fellow in the Clinical Genetics Branch, was selected to join the 2024 cohort of the NCI Career Development Program.
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Dr. Parry’s clinical-based medical genetics research focused on mapping and clinical studies of neurofibromatosis 2 and genetic studies of chordoma, a rare bone tumor derived from the notochord, and adult brain tumors. She was deeply committed to mentoring and training fellows in medical genetics and developed and directed the interdisciplinary cancer genetics fellowship program in DCEG.
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As the 2023 Visiting Scholar, Dr. Hankinson presented her research and engaged with fellows and investigators at several roundtable discussions. As the first visiting scholar since returning to the physical workplace, Dr. Hankinson’s two-day visit was an important reminder of the vitality of collaboration and communion with scientists outside our institution.
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Reductions in cigarettes per day and the amount of time smoked were both associated with lower risk of lung cancer among men in the prospective cohort study, Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study. Serial questionnaires collected every four months allowed for precision of estimates.
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African American, Hispanic, and Latino people, as well as individuals with limited education or experiencing poverty, reside in areas disproportionately affected by carcinogenic industrial emissions, a new study finds.
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Risk prediction for incident breast cancer among U.S. Black women was improved with the addition of polygenic risk score (PRS) to questionnaire-based factors. Ruth Pfeiffer and colleagues validated the performance of a previously published PRS for Black women and tested its performance when combined with models using questionnaire-based risk factors. Performance metrics were similar to models for women of European ancestry.
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Zhiwei Liu, Ph.D., former tenure-track investigator in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, will begin a new position in mid-January. He investigated the role of infection and immune response in the etiology of virus-related cancers—primarily Epstein-Barr virus and nasopharyngeal cancer, and hepatitis B virus and hepatocellular carcinoma.
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The NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology launched a new data science training resource to help early-career cancer researchers and trainees gain basic skills in navigating the world of cancer data science.
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Dr. Barry Graubard retired from DCEG at the beginning of 2024. He focused on developing new statistical methodologies at the interface between biostatistics and survey sampling with particular emphasis on cancer epidemiology, making fundamental contributions to the use of national population-based surveys to improve the representativeness of cohort, case-control, nested case-control, and cross-sectional studies.