Visiting Scholars Seminar Series - Previous Academic Years

The Multiethnic Cohort Study:  Diet, Genes, and More
Dr. Laurence (Larry) N. Kolonel, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii

Executive Plaza North
6130 Executive Boulevard
Conference Room H
Rockville, Md.

Dr. Kolonel is Center Deputy Director and Director, Cancer Etiology Program, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii.  He has been principal investigator of EGRP-funded Multiethnic/Minority Cohort Study since it was established in Hawaii and Los Angeles in 1993-1996.  The cohort study was initiated to explore the relationship of diet and other lifestyle factors to cancer.  It is comprised of more than 215,000 men and women primarily of African-American, Japanese, Latino, Native Hawaiian, and Caucasian origin, and is unique among existing cohort studies in its ethnic diversity and representation of minority populations.

The Multiethnic/Minority Cohort Study also is one of the 6 large prospective cohorts that are pooling data and biospecimens for the Breast and Prostate Cancer and Hormone-Related Gene Variants Cohort Consortium (BPC3 Study).  The study combines the resources of these large prospective cohorts, three genomic facilities, and epidemiologists, population geneticists, and biostatisticians from multiple institutions.

Endogenous Hormones and Risk of Breast Cancer
Dr. Susan Hankinson, Associate Professor of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health

Executive Plaza North
6130 Executive Boulevard
Conference Room G
Rockville, Md.

Dr. Hankinson's research focuses on the relationships between circulating hormone levels, tumor receptor status, and invasive versus in situ tumor status in pre- and post-menopausal women. She is part of the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) group at Harvard, and is principal investigator of the NHS research project "Premenopausal Hormone Levels and Risk of Breast Cancer" that is funded through EGRP. More information about Dr. Hankinson and her research is available from Harvard's and NCI's Web sites.

The California Teachers Study: The First Five Years of Follow-Up
Leslie Bernstein, Ph.D., University of Southern California

Executive Plaza North
Conference Room G
6130 Executive Boulevard
Rockville, Md.

Dr. Bernstein is Vice Provost for Medical Affairs; Professor, Preventive Medicine; and AFLAC, Inc., Chair in Cancer Research, USC; and Scientific Director, Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program.

The California Teachers Study (CTS), a geographically defined prospective study of 133,479 women who are public school teachers or professionals, was initiated in 1995 by a consortium of five California research centers with expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental health. In its short history, the CTS has provided information on a variety of risk factors and geographic predictors of breast cancer, including diet, alcohol, cigarette smoking, use of pain relieving drugs, physical activity, and residential proximity to agricultural pesticide exposure and regional variation. Substudies have been conducted to validate the dietary questionnaire and self-reports of cancer diagnoses and hospitalizations, compare approaches to assessing exercise histories, describe the attributes of women who use vitamin supplements, and assess residential mobility and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.  

The study was designed to focus initially on the etiology and prevention of breast cancer. The initiation of the cohort was supported by California tobacco taxes targeted to breast cancer research. Members of the cohort were identified through their participation in the California State Teachers Retirement System (STRS), a quasi-public retirement system to which all public school teachers and administrators must belong. Ongoing cohort activities have been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) through a consortium Research Project Grant (R01) since 1998.

The participating research centers are the University of Southern California, University of California at Irvine, Northern California Cancer Center, and the Environmental Health Investigations Branch and Cancer Surveillance Section of the California Department of Health Services.