Research Highlights - News Updates
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Black Women Have Highest Mortality Rate of Cervical Cancer Subtype Compared to All other Groups
Camyrn Cohen and colleagues found that, despite having the lowest incidence of cervical adenocarcinoma, Black women also experience the highest mortality rate of this cervical cancer subtype.
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Virtual Pooled Registry Approach Improves Cancer Ascertainment
Investigators describe the value of a Virtual Pooled Registry (VPR) for population-based cohort studies in the United States. The VPR would increase the completeness of data, and decrease the time and costs associated with linking to multiple cancer registries.
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Geographic Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Mortality Risk Among Breast Cancer Survivors
Dr. Jacqueline B. Vo led a study using SEER data that observed increased cardiovascular disease mortality risk in breast cancer survivors if they lived in lower socioeconomic and more rural counties at the time of their breast cancer diagnosis compared to those living in higher socioeconomic and more urban counties.
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NIH Intramural Blog Highlights Lung Cancer Screening Research
Hormuzd Katki, senior investigator in the Biostatistics and Branch, and Anil Chaturvedi, senior investigator in the Clinical Genetics Branch, discuss their research on lung cancer screening with the NIH’s Intramural Research Program blog, I am Intramural.
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Germline-Somatic Interactions, Telomere Biology Affect Myelofibrosis Risk
DCEG investigators have identified six germline susceptibility loci for the rare myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) myelofibrosis; four overlap with loci previously identified for overall MPN. The findings were published September 8, 2022, in Nature Communications.
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Inaugural Intramural Health Disparities Workshop
The Center for Cancer Research Health Disparity Steering Committee, DCEG Cancer Health Disparities Working Group, and Fellows Cancer Health Disparities Interest Group co-organized a workshop to communicate expectations of health disparity research, identify research resources, highlight opportunities for collaborations, and outline future directions.
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Early HPV Vaccination is Important in Reducing HPV 16/18 Prevalence
Using NHANES data, DCEG researchers found that HPV vaccination before sexual debut virtually eliminated HPV 16/18 in females but vaccination after debut only reduced HPV-16/18 prevalence by 40 percent compared to those unvaccinated. Only 59 percent of U.S. childhood HPV vaccinations occurred before sexual debut.
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Tobacco Smoke at Home Linked To Higher Mortality Across Diverse Group of Nonsmokers
Nonsmokers exposed daily to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) at home had higher mortality risks than those unexposed in a nationally representative study of the US population. These findings were observed across population subgroups of race and ethnicity, education, and household income, according to a study led by Dr. Daniela Gutiérrez in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch.
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Largest GWAS Maps Variation in Human Height
The international consortium known as GIANT published results from the largest-known genome-wide association study (GWAS)—nearly 5.4 million people—and identified more than 12,000 genetic variants associated with variation in human height. Dr. Sonja Berndt played a major role in the study. These findings were published in Nature on October 12, 2022.
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Novel Potential Risk Factors Identified for Treatment-Related Thoracic Soft-Tissue Sarcomas
Drs. Lene Veiga and Amy Berrington in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch explored the risk of thoracic soft tissue sarcomas among breast cancer survivors in two U.S. cohorts. They identified a history of hypertension or diabetes as novel potential co-factors for radiation-induced angiosarcoma.
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Despite Recent Declines, Gastric Cancer Remains Leading Cause of Cancer Death in the Americas
Drs. Constanza Camargo, Christian Alvarez, and collaborators in Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and Spain, analyzed data from the NCI Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program and the World Health Organization to provide the most up-to-date estimates on gastric cancer mortality trends at a country-specific level for Hispanic/Latino populations. Patterns differed by country, sex, and age, revealing potential for prevention.
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Increased Meningioma Risk Following Treatments for Childhood Cancer
In the largest pooled study of childhood cancer survivors to date, Dr. Lene Veiga in the Radiation Epidemiology Branch and former fellow Dr. Diana Withrow, observed that meningioma risk increased linearly with the treatment radiation dose. Meningioma risk was higher for children treated before age 10 and persisted over 30 years after radiotherapy. Receiving the chemotherapy drug, methotrexate was also associated with increased risk of meningioma, but no dose-response relationship was observed.
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A Healthy Lifestyle May Help Former Smokers Lower Their Risk of Death from All Causes
Findings from an analysis of a large group of former smokers who participated in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study showed that former smokers who adhered to evidence-based recommendations for body weight, physical activity, and alcohol intake had a lower risk of mortality than former smokers who didn't adhere to these recommendations.
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Tea Consumption Associated with Lower Risk of Death
Investigators found that drinking 2+ cups of tea per day was associated with lower risk of death in a study of nearly five million people in the United Kingdom, where black tea is common.
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Many Types of Leisure Time Activities May Lower Risk of Death for Older Adults
A study led by Dr. Eleanor Watts showed that older adults who participate weekly in many different types of leisure time activities, such as walking for exercise, jogging, swimming laps, or playing tennis, may have a lower risk of death from any cause, as well as death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.
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HPV Vaccine Protection Outweighs Additional Risk of Cervical Lesions Caused by Non-Preventable HPV Types
In a study published June 2022 in Lancet Oncology, Jaimie Shing, Ph.D., M.P.H., and colleagues observed that HPV types not targeted by the vaccine cause cervical lesions more frequently in vaccinated populations than in unvaccinated populations. However, the number of prevented cervical lesions was considerably greater than the number of additional lesions attributed to non-preventable HPV types, thus confirming the efficacy of the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer prevention.
this study is the first to observe and evaluate clinical unmasking following HPV vaccination. -
Oral Microbiome Linked to Lung Cancer Risk
A study from Emily Vogtmann, Ph.D., M.P.H., senior investigator in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch, links the oral microbiome to lung cancer risk using data from three DCEG cohorts: the Agricultural Health Study, NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial.
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Testing for IBMFS Important for Treatment Decisions in Severe Aplastic Anemia
Individuals who receive hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) for treatment of severe aplastic anemia (SAA) can benefit from genetic testing prior to treatment initiation to determine if they have an unrecognized inherited bone marrow failure syndrome.
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Interferon Treatment May Improve COVID-19 Outcomes in People with Certain Genetic Factors
Drs. Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson, Oscar Florez-Vargas, and Rouf Banday in the Laboratory of Translational Genomics investigated the role of OAS1 in COVID-19 severity in patients of European and African ancestries. This finding contributes to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of COVID-19 disease severity and may inform treatment options for COVID-19.
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Bringing the Pieces Together: CCR-DCEG FLEX Awards
To capitalize on the complementary research approaches of the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) and DCEG, the CCR-DCEG FLEX award was established in 2015 to fund collaborative projects. Seven years later, Drs. Constanza Camargo, Charles Rabkin, Eric Engels, Neelam Giri, and Laufey Amundadottir, discuss how their projects came about and their progress toward understanding the causes of cancer and the means of prevention.