Biography

Dr. Yang received a Ph.D. in physiology from the Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University in 1999 and a M.P.H. in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 2003. She joined the Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB) in 2000 as a fellow, and became a tenure track investigator in 2006. Her research interests include the genetics of familial cutaneous malignant melanoma/dysplastic nevi syndrome and molecular heterogeneity of breast cancer.

Research Interests

• Identifying susceptibility genes for familial cancers including cutaneous malignant melanoma/dysplastic nevi syndrome, chordoma, and nasopharyngeal carcinoma using genetic linkage and association analyses.
• Assessing etiologic heterogeneity of breast cancer using Tissue Microarray analysis of molecular markers involved in hormone-mediated pathways.

Keywords

• genetic linkage, breast cancer, cutaneous malignant melanoma, etiology, hetergeneity, genetic epidemiology, tissue microarray

Selected Publications

• Yang XR, Pfeiffer RM, Garcia-Closas M, Rimm DL, Lissowska J, Brinton LA, Peplonska B, Hewitt SM, Cartun RW, Mandich D, Sasano H, Evans DB, Sutter TR, Sherman ME. Hormonal markers in breast cancer: coexpression, relationship with pathologic characteristics, and risk factor associations in a population-based study. Cancer Res 2007;67:10608-10617.
• Yang XR, Sherman ME, Rimm DL, Lissowska J, Brinton LA, Peplonska B, Hewitt SM, Anderson WF, Szeszenia-Dabrowska N, Bardin-Mikolajczak A, Zatonski W, Cartun R, Mandich D, Rymkiewicz G, Ligaj M, Lukaszek S, Kordek R, García-Closas M. Differences in risk factors for breast cancer molecular subtypes in a population-based study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarker Prev 2007;16:439-443.
• Yang XR, Charette LA, Garcia-Closas M, Lissowska J, Paal E, Sidawy M, Hewitt SM, Rimm DL, Sherman ME. Construction and validation of tissue microarrays of ductal carcinoma in situ and terminal duct lobular units associated with invasive breast carcinoma. Diagn Mol Pathol 2006;15:157-161.
• Yang XR, Goldstein AM, Chen CJ, Rabkin CS, Chen JY, Cheng YJ, Hsu WL, Sun B, Diehl SR, Liu MY, Walters M, Shao W, Ortiz-Conde BA, Whitby D, Elmore SH, Gulley ML, Hildesheim A. Distribution of Epstein-Barr viral load in serum of individuals from nasopharyngeal carcinoma high-risk families in Taiwan. Int J Cancer 2006;118:780-784.
• Yang XR, Pfeiffer RM, Goldstein AM. Influence of glutathione-S-transferase (GSTM1, GSTP1, GSTT1) and cytochrome p450 (CYP1A1, CYP2D6) polymorphisms on numbers of basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) in families with the naevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome. J Med Genet 2006;43:e16.
• Yang XR, Beerman M, Bergen AW, Parry DM, Sheridan E, Liebsch NJ, Kelley MJ, Chanock S, Goldstein AM. Corroboration of a familial chordoma locus on chromosome 7q and evidence of genetic heterogeneity using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Int J Cancer 2005;116:487-491.
• Yang XR, Jacobs K, Kerstann KF, Bergen AW, Goldstein AM, Goldin LR. Linkage analysis of the GAW14 simulated dataset with microsatellite and single-nucleotide polymorphism markers in large pedigrees. BMC Genetics 2005;6:S14.
• Yang XR, Diehl S, Pfeiffer R, Chen CJ, Hsu WL, Dosemeci M, Cheng YJ, Sun B, Goldstein AM, Hildesheim A, The Chinese and American Genetic Epidemiology of NPC Study Team. Evaluation of risk factors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma in high-risk nasopharyngeal carcinoma families in Taiwan. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14:900-905.

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• William Anderson, M.D., M.P.H.; Louise Brinton, Ph.D.; Montserrat Garcia-Closas, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Alisa Goldstein, Ph.D.; Allan Hildesheim, Ph.D.; Dilys Parry, Ph.D.; Ruth Pfeiffer, Ph.D.; Mark Sherman, M.D.; Peggy Tucker, M.D.; David Ng, M.D.; Sharon (Xueying) Liang, Ph.D.

Other NCI Collaborators

• Stephen Hewitt, M.D., Ph.D.; Lalage Wakefield, Ph.D.; Paul Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D.; Kiyohiko Mabuchi, M.D., Dr.P.H.

Other ScientificCollaborators

• Richard Cartun, Ph.D., Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT
• Michael Kelley, M.D., Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC
• David Rimm, M.D., Ph.D., Yale University, New Haven, CT
• Hiro Sasano, M.D., Ph.D., Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan
• Paul Ahlquist, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• Nori Nakamura, Ph.D., Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan