DCEG News Updates
The latest news and research findings from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
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The twelfth annual DCEG Fellows’ Symposium was held virtually on July 2, 2020. The theme for this year was “Mine the Gap: Research in Underrepresented Populations,” and explored the challenges in health disparities among underrepresented populations and the role of research in closing the gap.
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Rashmi Sinha, Ph.D., received the Fred P. Li Impact Award for her article, “Collecting Fecal Samples for Microbiome Analyses in Epidemiology Studies,” at the annual AACR meeting in 2020.
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Martha Linet and Annelie Landgren received the Constance L. Percy Award for Distinguished Service in recognition of their work on the Virtual Pooled Registry Cancer Linkage System.
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Six projects were funded through the 2020 DCEG Informatics Tool Challenge, a competitive program to support innovative approaches to epidemiological methods, data collection, analysis, and other research efforts using modern technology and informatics.
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Jiaqi Huang and Demetrius Albanes in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch analyzed the dietary intake of over 400,000 participants from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study and found that greater intake of plant protein rather than animal protein was associated with lower overall and cardiovascular disease mortality.
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Amy Berrington and colleagues conducted a systematic bias assessment and meta-analysis of 26 studies of low dose ionizing radiation. In a JNCI monograph published July 2020, they report a dose-response and statistically significant cancer risk for solid tumors and leukemia.
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Montserrat García-Closas and colleagues at Johns Hopkins University and multiple consortia for 14 cancers showed that the utility of polygenic risk scores can vary widely depending on cancer type.
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Video recordings and slides from the 2019 Radiation Epidemiology and Dosimetry Course are available online. The course covers the fundamentals of the health effects of radiation exposure, including methods of exposure assessment, and key findings from the latest studies of medical, occupational, and environmental radiation exposures.
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Investigators and fellows presented their research and engaged virtually at the annual scientific meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
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Nicolas Wentzensen and colleagues developed a computer algorithm to improve the accuracy and efficiency of cervical cancer screening compared with cytology, the current standard for follow-up of women who test positive with primary HPV screening. The new approach has clear implications for clinical care.
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In June 2020, Dr. Robert Hoover, Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics program, retired from the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics after a remarkable 48 years of service to the National Cancer Institute.
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Maki Inoue-Choi and collaborators found that nondaily smoking increases risk of death from any cause, compared to both former smokers and never smokers.
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Montserrat Garcia-Closas and colleagues report findings from a new genome-wide association study (GWAS) for breast cancer identifying 32 novel susceptibility loci. Importantly, this study reveals genetic risk for breast cancer subtypes and expands the potential for the development of subtype-specific polygenic risk scores.
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Maisa Pinheiro, Julia Gage, and Lisa Mirabello in the Clinical Genetics Branch find African American women have more HPV 35 infections and HPV 35-associated cervical precancers than women of other races/ethnicities. Genomic analysis also revealed an association with the HPV 35 A2 sublineage and precancer/cancer in women of African ancestry. The highly-effective HPV vaccine covers seven oncogenic HPV types, but does not currently include HPV 35, therefore results from this study warrant further investigation on whether the addition of HPV 35 could provide better protection against cervical precancer for women in Africa or of African ancestry.
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In a study of 11,573 HPV-positive women, Maria Demarco, Ph.D., M.P.H., et al., found HPV type and persistence are the major predictors of progression to cervical precancer. At a minimum, HPV16 is clinically important, and dividing the other HPV types into three risk-groups is worth considering. These findings were published in the journal EClinicalMedicine on April 24, 2020.
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Meredith Shiels was selected as the 2020 DCEG recipient of the Women Scientist Advisor’s Mentoring and Leadership Award, which recognizes investigators for exceptional dedication, leadership, and tireless efforts to promote and nurture NCI women scientists at all stages of their careers.
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In May 2020, Director Stephen Chanock welcomed staff to the Spring Town Hall meeting to talk about new developments in the Division, and to recognize accomplishments over the past six months.
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Genomic studies, serology assay valuation, descriptive epidemiology studies, and other activities of DCEG investigators and staff in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Mia M. Gaudet, Ph.D., joined DCEG as the senior scientist for the Connect for Cancer Prevention Cohort in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program. Dr. Gaudet will oversee cohort management and activities as well as serve as the study’s chair in the DCEG Steering Committee.
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Britton Trabert and collaborators find an association between circulating progesterone and increased breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women.