DCEG People in the News

In June, Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, D.Phil., Parveen Bhatti, Ph.D., Andre Bouville, Ph.D., Alina V. Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., and Alice J. Sigurdson, Ph.D., all of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch (REB), gave invited lectures at the 2008 American Statistical Association Conference on Radiation and Health in Vail, Colorado. Dr. Berrington de Gonzalez discussed “Cancer risks related to CT scan use in the U.S.”; Dr. Bhatti spoke on “Fluorescence in situ hybridization and diagnostic radiation exposure in radiologic technologists”; Dr. Bouville talked about “Using biodosimetry to estimate doses in retrospective studies”; Dr. Brenner spoke on “Lung cancer in fluoroscopy patients: Massachusetts cohort”; and Dr. Sigurdson lectured on the “Risk of cataract attributable to personal diagnostic radiation exposure among radiation technologists.”

In July, Louise A. Brinton, Ph.D., Chief of the Hormonal and Reproductive Epidemiology Branch (HREB), gave a talk on “Cancer risks after fertility treatment in females” at the 24th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona. Dr. Brinton also gave a talk on “Prospective evaluation of risk factors for male breast cancer” at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research in Chicago in June. At the same meeting, Kim N. Danforth, Sc.D. (HREB), spoke on “Postmenopausal hormone use and ovarian cancer risk: An update of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study”; Gretchen L. Gierach, Ph.D., M.P.H. (HREB), presented a poster on “Physical activity and endometrial cancer risk in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study”; Dr. Gierach and Maureen C. Hatch, Ph.D. (REB), cochaired a Spotlight Session on “Current topics in breast cancer research”; and Cari Meinhold, M.H.S., Nutritional Epidemiology Branch (NEB), gave a talk on “Predictors of insulin and glucose and the risk of pancreatic cancer in smokers.”

This summer, Eric A. Engels, M.D., M.P.H., Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch (IIB), gave several talks: “Transplant Cancer Match Study” at the Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Organ Transplantation in Rockville; “Infections as causes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: An overview” at a Stockholm meeting titled Leukemia and Lymphoma Development—The Role of Inflammation, Autoimmunity, and Infections; “New insights into the epidemiology and outcome of lung cancer in HIV-infected patients” at the American Thoracic Society Meeting in Toronto; and “Research priorities in epidemiology: Non–AIDS-defining cancers” at the AIDS Malignancy Working Group meeting at NCI in Bethesda.

In August, Mitchell H. Gail, M.D., Ph.D., Biostatistics Branch (BB), gave an invited session at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Denver on “Probability of detecting disease-associated SNPs in case-control genome-wide association studies.” At the same meeting, Hormuzd A. Katki, Ph.D. (BB), gave an invited presentation on “Estimating family relationships using DNA fingerprints in the NHANES-III Household Survey.”

In May, Montserrat García-Closas, M.D., Dr.P.H. (HREB), gave an NIH Director’s Seminar Series lecture on “Advances in the understanding of genetic susceptibility to breast cancer.”

In May, Lynn R. Goldin, Ph.D., Genetic Epidemiology Branch (GEB), spoke on “Finding cancer susceptibility genes: Family and population approaches” at the Columbia University Genetic Epidemiology Seminar.

In September, Dr. Hatch gave an invited talk on “Thyroid cancer among those exposed in utero or as children to I-131 from Chornobyl fallout” at the Thyroid Cancer State of Science conference, Chornobyl and Beyond, held in Bethesda.

Farin Kamangar, M.D., Ph.D. (NEB), gave a talk on “Investigating the etiology of esophageal cancer in a high-risk area of Iran: Old and new risk factors” at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle in May and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore in June.

In April, Dr. Katki gave a presentation on “The close relationship between false discovery rates and statistical evidence as quantified by Bayes factors” at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

In April, Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D. (GEB), gave a presentation on “Integration of data from germline and somatic changes in the etiology of cancer” at the NIH Clinical Center. Later in the month, she spoke on “Genetic susceptibility in melanoma etiology” at Yale Cancer Center Grand Rounds and on “An integrative approach to look at lung cancer etiology” at the Department of Genetics Seminar at Yale University School of Medicine. In May, she served as cochair of the Clinical Epidemiology of Melanoma Session of the International Pigment Cell Conference and the International Melanoma Research Congress held at the Sapporo Medical University in Japan, and she gave an invited talk on the “Role of heredity, the environment, and somatic changes in melanoma treatment and clinical outcome.”

In July, Martha S. Linet, M.D., M.P.H., Chief of REB, gave two presentations: “A feasibility study to improve questionnaire-based sun exposure measures for epidemiologic studies of cancer” at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia and “Diagnostic medical radiation and risk of childhood cancer” at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. In September, she gave a talk on “Government: Combining research and service work” at a career forum at the American College of Epidemiology meeting in Tucson.

Jennifer T. Loud, R.N., C.R.N.P., D.N.P., Clinical Genetics Branch (CGB), has been appointed Assistant Branch Chief of CGB. She is a lead investigator on a breast imaging protocol, has helped develop the Branch’s behavioral and psychosocial research studies, and is a national leader in the Oncology Nursing Society’s Cancer Genetics and Nurse Practitioner special interest groups. In May, she presented a talk on “The use of family history in screening for individuals at risk of cancer” at the Oncology Nursing Society meeting in Philadelphia, and in June, she gave a talk on genetics and genomics at the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies.

In June, Dr. Gierach and Gwen Murphy, Ph.D., M.P.H. (IIB), received NCI Merit Awards in Cancer Prevention Research Training. The awards recognize outstanding performance as Cancer Prevention Fellows.

In May, Thomas R. O’Brien, M.D., M.P.H., Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, presented findings on “Variants in interferon-α pathway genes and response to treatment of chronic hepatitis C” at the Digestive Disease Week conference in San Diego. He was recently named an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

In April, Charles S. Rabkin, M.D. (IIB), chaired an American Association for Cancer Research Educational Session on “Chronic infection and carcinogenesis: Biology and application” held in San Diego. He also gave invited talks on “Molecular epidemiology of infection-related malignancy” at the Refractory Diseases Caused by Viral Infection Symposium at the Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences in Japan in March and at the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center in May.

A number of DCEG fellows and investigators were actively involved in planning and hosting the NCI Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention. Dr. Gierach hosted the hormonal and reproductive sessions of the Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control of Site-Specific Tumors module; Dr. Murphy hosted the Disseminating Scientific Knowledge module; and Joanne L. Watters, Ph.D., M.P.H. (NEB), hosted the Diet and Cancer Prevention module. Dana M. Van Bemmel, Ph.D., M.P.H., Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, was involved in planning the Molecular Prevention component of the course. In addition, Arthur Schatzkin, M.D., Dr.P.H., Chief of NEB, gave a talk on “Diet in cancer at a crossroads: Do we know what to believe—or even believe what we know?” and Amanda J. Cross, Ph.D. (NEB), spoke on “Colorectal cancer.”