Biography

Ethel S. Gilbert received a B.A. in mathematics from Oberlin College and an M.P.H. and Ph. D. in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan. She spent several years as a senior staff scientist at Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where her research focused on epidemiologic studies of nuclear workers and on analyzing data from experimental animal studies, and also spent a year at the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr. Gilbert joined the NCI in 1996 as an Expert. She received the NIH Merit Award in 2003 for research in several areas. Her current research includes studies of workers at the Mayak nuclear plant in Russia and studies of second cancers after radio-and chemotherapy. Dr. Gilbert serves on the BEIR VII Committee on Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation. She is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and a member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements.

Research Interests

• Evaluating carcinogenic risk from exposure to plutonium and risks and from protracted external exposure in workers at the Mayak nuclear facility in the Russian Federation
• Developing risk models for estimating the carcinogenic risk from exposure to radiation
• Analyzing data from both case-control and cohort studies of second cancers after radiotherapy and chemotherapy

Keywords

Mayak, Russia, second cancers, radiotherapy, nuclear workers, plutonium, external exposure, risk assessment

Selected Publications

• Gilbert, E.S. 2001. "Invited commentary: Studies of workers exposed to low doses of radiation." Am. J. of Epidem. 153: 319-322.
• Gilbert, E.S., C. Land, S. Simon. 2002. "Health Effects From Fallout." Health Physics, 82 (5):726-735.
• Gilbert, E.S., M. Stovall, M. Gospodarowicz, F.E. van Leeuwen, M. Andersson, B. Glimelius, T. Joensuu, C.F. Lynch, R.E. Curtis, E. Holowaty, H. Storm, E. Pukkala, M.B. van't Veer, J.F. Fraumeni Jr., J.D. Boice Jr., E.A. Clarke and L.B.Travis. 2003. "Lung cancer following treatment for Hodgkin's disease: focus on radiation effects." Radiat. Res. 159:161-173.
• Shilnikova, N.A., D.L. Preston, E. Ron, E. S. Gilbert, E.K. Vassilenko, S.A. Romanov, I.S. Kuznetsova, M.E. Sokolnikov, P.V. Okatenko, V.V. Kreslov, and N.A. Koshurnikova. "Cancer mortality risk among workers at the Mayak nuclear complex." 2003. Radiat. Res. 159:787-798.
  
• Travis, L.B., D.A.Hill, G.M. Dores, M. Gospodarowicz, F.E. van Leeuwen, E. Holowaty, B. Glimelius, M. Andersson, T. Wiklund, C.F. Lynch, M.B. Van't Veer, I. Glimelius, H. Storm, E. Pukkala, M. Stovall, R. Curtis, J.D. Boice, E. Gilbert. 2003. "Breast cancer following radiotherapy and chemotherapy among young women with Hodgkin Disease." JAMA, 290(4):465-475.
  
• Gilbert, E.S., Koshurnikova, N.A., Sokolnikov, M.E., Shilnikova, N.S., Preston, D.L., Ron, E., Okatenko, P.V., Khokhryakov, V.F., Vasilenko, E.K., Miller, S. Eckerman, K. and Romanov, S.A.. "Lung Cancer in Mayak Workers," Radiat. Res. (in press).

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• Andre Bouville, Ph.D.; Alina Brenner, M.D., Ph.D.; Rochelle Curtis, M.S.; Deirdre Hill, Ph.D.; Charles Land, Ph.D.; Kiyohiko Mabuchi, Ph.D., Elaine Ron, Ph.D.; Steve Simon, Ph.D.; Lois Travis, M.D., Ph.D.

Other Scientific Collaborators

• John Boice, Jr., Ph.D., International Epidemiology Institute, Rockville MD
• Elisabeth Cardis, Ph.D., International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
• Nina Koshurnikova, M.D., Ph.D., Natalia Shilnikova, Ph.D., Mikhail Sokolnikov, M.D., Southern Urals Biophysics Institute, Ozyorsk, Russia
• Dale Preston, Ph.D. Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Hiroshima, Japan
• Daniel Schafer, Ph.D., Dept. of Statistics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
• Marilyn Stovall, Ph.D., University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX