skip to content
National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
About DCEG

Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Investigator, Radiation Epidemiology Branch

Location: Executive Plaza South, Room 7086
Phone: 301-435-4724
Fax: 301-402-0207
E-mail: berringtona@mail.nih.gov

 Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Berrington de Gonzalez received a Ph.D. in Cancer Epidemiology from the University of Oxford in 2001. She conducted post-doctoral research in Oxford before joining the faculty there. In 2005 she moved to become an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch as an Investigator in 2008. She is currently serving on the UK Health Protection Agency’s Advisory Group on Ionising Radiation, and has previously served on the UK Breast Screening Programme’s Advisory Group, and as a special advisor to WHO on radiation effects and health.

Research Interests

  • Quantification of the cancer risks related to diagnostic X-rays and CT scans
  • Effect of modifiers of radiation-related cancer risks
  • Cancer risks related to new diagnostic and therapeutic radiologic modalities

Medical radiation exposures now constitute the largest source of radiation exposure to the general population. Whilst their use provides great medical benefits it can also result in an increased risk of cancer. My research is primarily focused on how we can use epidemiological data to quantify the cancer risks related to medical radiation exposures.

A key factor in radiation risk estimation is the assumption about the form of the joint effect of radiation and other cancer risk factors. For example, the magnitude of the risk of radiation-induced breast cancer from mammographic screening for BRCA mutation carriers will depend on the joint effect of the radiation and the gene. Methodological work that I have conducted has highlighted the difficulties involved in studying joint effects, including the magnitude of the sample size required to distinguish between additive and multiplicative models, and the challenge of interpreting statistical tests for interaction due to their scale dependence. I am currently conducting a feasibility project for a study of second cancers after radiotherapy for breast cancer in the UK. The primary aim will be to study potential modifying factors of the radiation-related cancer risks.

I am also interested in the cancer-related risks from new radiotherapy technologies including intensity-modulated radiotherapy and proton therapy. Both of these new technologies utilized by radiation oncologists should improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients but may concurrently increase the risk of second cancers as a result of higher scatter doses.

Keywords

Radiation, screening, breast cancer, interactions, diagnostic X-rays, radiotherapy, computed tomography.

All Publications

    • Berrington de Gonzalez A, Yun J-E, Lee S-Y, Klein AP, Jee SH. Pancreatic cancer and factors associated with insulin resistance syndrome in the Korean Cancer Prevention Study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers & Prev 2008; 17.
    • Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian Cancer. Ovarian cancer and oral contraceptives: collaborative re-analysis of individual data from 45 epidemiological studies including 23,257 women with ovarian cancer and 87,303 controls. Lancet 2008; 371: 303-14.
    • Berrington de Gonzalez A, Kim KP, Samet JM. Radiation-induced cancer risk from annual computed tomography for patients with cystic fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2007 176; 970-3.
    • International Collaboration of Epidemiological Studies of Cervical Cancer (writing/analysis committee). Cervical carcinoma and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative re-analysis of individual data on 16,573 women with cervical cancer and 33,509 women without cervical cancer from 24 epidemiological studies. Lancet 2007 370; 1609-21.
    • Berrington de Gonzalez A, Cox DR. Interpretation of interaction: a review. Annals of Applied Statistics 2007; 1: 371-85.
    • Appleby P, Beral V, Berrington de González A (corresponding author), Colin D, Franceschi S, Goodill A, Green J et al. Comparison of risk factors for invasive squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the cervix: collaborative re-analysis of individual data on 8,097 women with squamous cell carcinoma and 1,374 women with adenocarcinoma of the cervix from 12 epidemiological studies. International Journal of Cancer 2007: 120; 885-91.
    • Berrington de González A, Urban MI, Sitas F, Blackburn N, Hale M, Patel M, Ruff P, Sur R, Newton R, Beral V. Antibodies against six human herpesviruses in relation to seven cancers in Black South Africans: a case-control study. Infectious Agents and Cancer 2006: 1;2.
    • Berrington de Gonzalez A, Spencer EA, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Roddam A, Stolzenberg-Solomon R, Halkjaer J, et al. Anthropometry, physical activity and the risk of pancreatic cancer in the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC). Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006: 15; 879-85.
    • Appleby P, Beral V, Berrington de González A, Colin D, Franceschi S, Goodill A, Green J, et al. Carcinoma of the cervix and reproductive factors: collaborative re-analysis of individual data on 13541 women with carcinoma of the cervix and 23017 women without carcinoma of the cervix from 23 epidemiological studies. International Journal of Cancer 2006: 119; 1108-24.
    • Appleby P, Beral V, Berrington de González A (corresponding author), Colin D, Franceschi S, Goodill A, Green J, et al. Carcinoma of the cervix and tobacco smoking: collaborative re-analysis of individual data on 13541 women with carcinoma of the cervix and 23017 women without carcinoma of the cervix from 23 epidemiological studies. International Journal of Cancer 2006: 118; 1481-95.
    • Munoz N, Castellsague X, Berrington de Gonzalez A, Guissmann L. 'Chapter 1: Human papillomavirus in the etiology of human cancer' in HPV and screening for the prevention of cervical cancer: a monographic supplement to the journal Vaccine 2006: 24 Suppl 3; S1-S10.
    • Berrington de González A, Reeves GK. Mammographic screening before age 50 years in the UK: comparison of the radiation risks with the mortality benefits. British Journal of Cancer 2005; 93: 590-6.
    • Berrington de González A, Cox DR. Additive and multiplicative models for the joint effect of two risk factors. Biostatistics 2005; 6: 1-9.
    • Beral V, Bull D, Reeves G, Million Women Study Collaborators (Collaborator). Endometrial cancer and hormone-replacement therapy in the Million Women Study. Lancet 2005; 365: 1543-51.
    • Huxley RR, Moghaddam AA, Berrington de González A, Barzi F, Woodward M. Type 2 diabetes and pancreatic cancer: a meta-analysis of 36 studies Br J Cancer 2005; 92: 2076-83.
    • Berrington de González A, Darby S. Risk of cancer from diagnostic X-rays: estimates for the UK and 14 other countries. Lancet 2004; 363: 345-51. (Nominated for the Lancet's paper of the year 2004).
    • Berrington de González A, Sweetland S, Green J. Comparison of risk factors for squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the cervix: a meta-analysis. Br J Cancer 2004; 90: 1787-91.
    • Memon A, Berrington de González A, Luqmani Y, Suresh A. Family history of benign thyroid disease and cancer and cancer and risk of thyroid cancer. Eur J Cancer 2004; 40: 754-60.
    • Berrington de González A, Sweetland S, Spencer E. A meta-analysis of obesity and the risk of pancreatic cancer. Br J Cancer 2003; 89: 519-23.
    • Berrington de González A, Ekbom A, Glass AG, Galanti MR, Grimelius L, Allison MJ, Inskip PD. Comparison of documented and recalled histories of exposure to diagnostic X-rays in case-control studies of thyroid cancer. American Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 157: 652-63.
    • Berrington A, Cox DR. Generalized least squares for the synthesis of correlated information. Biostatistics 2003; 4: 423-31.
    • Green J, Berrington de González A, Smith J, Franceschi S, Appleby P, Plummer M, Beral V. Human papillomavirus infection and use of oral contraceptives. Br J Cancer 2003; 88: 1713-20.
    • Green J, Berrington de González A, Sweetland S, Beral V, Chilvers C, Crossley B, Deacon J, Hermon C, Jha P, Mant D, Peto J, Pike MC, Vessey M. Risk factors for adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix in women aged 20-44 years: the UK National Case-control study of cervical cancer. Br J Cancer 2003; 89: 2078-86.
    • Smith JS, Green J, Berrington de González A, Appleby P, Peto J, Plummer M, Franceschi S, Beral V. Cervical cancer and use of hormonal contraceptives: a systematic review. Lancet 2003; 361: 1159-67.
    • Banks E, Berrington A, Casabonne D. Overview of the relationship between use of progestogen-only contraceptives and bone mineral density. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2001; 108: 1214-21.
    • Berrington A, Darby S, Weiss H A, Doll R. One hundred years of observation on British radiologists: mortality from cancer and other causes 1897-1997. Br J Radiology 2001; 74: 507-19.
    • Green J, Banks E, Berrington A, Darby S, Deo H, Newton R. N - acetyltransferase 2 and bladder cancer: an overview and consideration of the evidence for gene-environment interaction. Br J Cancer 2000; 83: 412-7.
    • Primrose JN, Baillet M, Barker K, Berrington A, Brown PD, Millar AW, Lynch KP, Bleiberg H. Daniel F, Van Belle S, Mansi JL, Seymour M, Johnson PW, Neoptolemos JP. Marimastat in recurrent colorectal cancer: exploratory evaluation of biological activity by measurement of carcinoembryonic antigen. Br J Cancer 1999; 79: 509-514
    • Nemunaitis J, Poole C, Primrose J, Rosemurgy A, Malfetano J, Brown P, Berrington A, Cornish A, Lynch K, Rasmussen H, Kerr D, Cox D, Millar A. Combined analysis of studies of the effects of the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor marimastat on the serum tumor markers in advanced cancer: selection of a biologically active and tolerable dose for longer-term studies. Clinical Cancer Research 1998; 4:1101-1109

    Articles, Editorials and Book Chapters (not peer reviewed)

    • Berrington de Gonzalez A. Invited Commentary: CT screening: safe and effective? J Med Screening 2007; 14: 165-8.
    • Samet JM, Thun MJ, Berrington de Gonzalez A. Invited Commentary: Models of smoking and lung cancer risk: a means to an end. Epidemiology 2007; 18: 649-51.
    • Berrington de González A, Samet J. Invited Commentary: Estimation of Cancer Mortality associated with repetitive computed tomography screening. Am J Respir Crit Car Med 2006; 173: 139-40.
    • Hildesheim A, Berrington de González A. Invited Commentary: Etiology and prevention of cervical adenocarcinomas. J Natl Cancer Inst 2006; 98: 292-3.
    • Doll R, Berrington A, Darby S. Low mortality of British radiologists. British Journal of Radiology 2005; 78: 1057-8.
    • Berrington de González A, Darby S. Risk of cancer from diagnostic X-rays: estimates for the UK and 14 other countries - Authors' reply. Lancet 2004; 363: 1910.
    • Berrington A, Cox DR. Comments on paper by C.E. Frangakis, D.B. Rubin, and X.-H. Zhao. Biostatistics 2002; 3: 165-7.
    • Berrington A, Jha P, Green J, Peto J, Hermon C. Oral contraceptives and cervical cancer. Lancet 2002; 360: 410.
    • Berrington A, Green J, Newton R. Vitamin D deficiency and tuberculosis. Lancet 2000; 356: 73.
    • Allen N, Newton R, Berrington de Gonzalez A, Green J, Banks E, Key T. 'The causes of cancer' Chapter 2 of Introduction to the cellular and molecular biology of cancer. 4th edition, OUP 2005.

    Collaborators

    DCEG Collaborators

    • Martha Linet, Ethel Gilbert, Ruth Kleinerman, Elaine Ron, Rochelle Curtis, Charles Land, Kwang Pyo Kim, Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon, Allan Hildesheim.

    Other Scientific Collaborators

    • Valerie Beral, University of Oxford, UK
    • Chris Berg, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
    • David Brenner, Columbia University, New York
    • Alan Brody, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, OH
    • David Cox, University of Oxford, UK
    • Rachel Huxley, George Institute, Sydney, Australia
    • Sun Ha Jee, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
    • Mark Robson, Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, New York
    • Jonathan Samet, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
    • Mary Schubauer-Berigan, NIOSH, Cincinnati, OH