2020 - News Updates
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Katelyn Connelly Awarded Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fellowship
Dr. Connelly was awarded a Sallie Rosen Kaplan (SRK) Postdoctoral Fellowship for 2021. The goal of the SRK program is to help prepare female postdoctoral fellows at the NCI for the transition to independent biomedical research careers. Fellows receive additional mentoring and networking opportunities and attend seminars and workshops designed to strengthen leadership, time management, and self-promotional skills.
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Birth Defects Associated with Increased Risk of Cancer in Adulthood
Rebecca Troisi, Sc.D., staff scientist in the Trans-Divisional Research Program, and collaborators examined cancer incidence associated with chromosomal and non-chromosomal congenital anomalies in a large Nordic population-based case-control study. Findings were published in BMJ on December 2, 2020.
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Allan Hildesheim Retires From DCEG
Allan Hildesheim, Ph.D., senior investigator and former chief of the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch (IIB) built a multidisciplinary research program focused on the interplay of infection, immunity, and inflammation on cancer risk and helped translate those findings into important advances in cancer prevention, risk stratification, and screening.
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SeroHub Launched: Interactive Dashboard Comparing COVID-19 Seroprevalence Studies
The COVID-19 Seroprevalence Studies Hub (SeroHub) was developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, parts of the National Institutes of Health, to provide an interactive dashboard to compare COVID-19 seroprevalence studies across the country.
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2020 iCURE Scholars Join DCEG
The NCI Intramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences (iCURE) program offers mentored research experiences to qualified individuals and aims to support the career progress of its scholars toward research independence, as well as foster and sustain diversity in the biomedical research pipeline. In 2020, DCEG welcomed six new iCURE scholars.
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Debra Silverman Receives 2020 EPICOH Lifetime Achievement Award
Over the past 48 years at the NCI, Dr. Silverman has made numerous seminal contributions to the field of occupational cancer epidemiology, including the evaluation of the carcinogenic effects of diesel exhaust.
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Cancer Deaths in the U.S. Resulted in Over Four Million Potential Years of Life Lost in 2017
Minkyo Song, Ph.D., and colleagues estimated the potential years of life lost due to premature death from cancer among Americans aged 75 and younger. They report common malignancies contributed to the largest number of years lost overall: lung cancer, followed by colorectal and breast cancer.
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DCEG Staff Gather in Virtual Town Hall Meetings, 2020 Summer and Fall
Stephen Chanock introduced the Trans-Divisional Research Program (TDRP) and recognized recipients of the Kelly Government Distinguished Achievement Awards, 2021 NCI Director’s Innovation Awards and DCEG Fellows Award for Research Excellence (DFARE) at the 2020 DCEG summer and fall town hall meetings.
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Jon Hofmann and Mark Purdue Present DCEG research at NASEM meeting on PFAS
Jonathan Hofmann, Ph.D., tenure-track investigator, and Mark Purdue, Ph.D., senior investigator, in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, participated in the Workshop on Federal Government Human Health PFAS Research, October 26-27, 2020, hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.
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The Training Experience at DCEG
DCEG prides itself as an optimal training environment for those interested in conducting research in cancer epidemiology by championing innovative opportunities to obtain integrated scientific and career training. 10 current fellows share their training experience in DCEG.
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Laboratories Move to NCI Shady Grove Campus, Unifying DCEG
The Laboratory of Translational Genomics, the Laboratory of Genetic Susceptibility, and the Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory joined the rest of the Division staff as occupants of a new constructed state of the art laboratory and staff building at Shady Grove.
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Neil Caporaso Retires from DCEG
Neil Caporaso studied genetic and environmental factors influencing lung cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and related familial hematologic disorders over his 37-year career at the National Cancer Institute.
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Branch Profile: Biostatistics
Underpinning nearly every research study conducted by DCEG is a collaboration with investigators in the Biostatistics Branch (BB). While highly trained and experienced epidemiologists can and do design their own analytic plans and calculate statistical power and other parameters, biostatisticians in BB ensure the statistical validity and strength of all DCEG research while actively engaging in the development of novel methods and tools.
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Allen Wilcox Delivers 2020 Wacholder Lecture
Dr. Wilcox, Scientist Emeritus in the Epidemiology Branch, Reproductive Epidemiology Group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences delivered the Sholom Wacholder Distinguished Lecture on The Cost of False-Positive Results: A Personal History.
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Daily, Low-dose Aspirin Use May Be Associated with Reduced Ovarian Cancer Risk
Daily, low-dose use of aspirin by women younger than 70 may be associated with reduced risk of ovarian cancer. These findings were published in September 2020 in the journal Gynecologic Oncology.
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Jennifer Loud Retires after 27 Years of Service to the NCI
Jennifer Loud, adult nurse practitioner and assistant chief in the Clinical Genetics Branch, retired after 27 years of NCI service.
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Donor IFNL4-null Genotype Associated with Improved Survival in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients with Acute Leukemia
Shahinaz Gadalla, M.D., Ph.D., Ludmila Prokunina-Olsson, Ph.D., and colleagues find acute leukemia patients receiving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) from donors with IFNL4-null genotype experience reduced risk of death from non-relapse related causes. Findings published October 2020 in Lancet Haematology.
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Novel Isoform of ACE2 Resolves Concern about Interferon-based Treatments for COVID-19
An international team of experts led by Dr. Prokunina-Olsson identified dACE2, a novel isoform of ACE2 (the cell receptor used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus to infect the body). The new report suggests that production of dACE2 and not ACE2 is affected by the presence of interferons, contributed by treatment or various viral infections, including SARS-CoV-2.
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Standardizing the Definition of Aggressive Prostate Cancer for Etiologic Studies
Lauren Hurwitz and Michael Cook in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch proposed a standardized definition for aggressive prostate cancer for use in epidemiologic research and compared its performance using data from the NCI SEER-18 database. The findings were published October 3, 2020, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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Large Study Confirms HPV Vaccine Prevents Cervical Cancer
Researchers in Sweden have confirmed that widespread use of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine dramatically reduces the number of women who will develop cervical cancer. Aimée R. Kreimer, Ph.D., senior investigator in the Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, discusses the impact of the study for a featured research highlight on the NCI Cancer Currents blog.