Cancer Epidemiology

PROJECT SUMMARY CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY PROGRAM The goal of the Moffitt Cancer Center (Moffitt) Cancer Epidemiology (CE) Program is to reduce cancer burden through better knowledge of exposures, their biological markers, and underlying mechanisms, and to translate learned knowledge to inform advances in clinical and public health practice. CE Program Members use robust methodologic and analytic approaches that incorporate a broad array of biomarkers and integrative methods to conduct population-level research that informs the etiology of cancer while recognizing the many aspects of heterogeneity in this widely varied group of diseases. The innovative research of the CE Program extends across the cancer continuum from cancer risk to interception and early detection to cancer outcomes covering primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention, with an intentional focus on those cancers that heavily impact Moffitt’s catchment area. CE Members strive to translate their research findings to inform change in clinical or public health practice and policy, and to shift cancer prevention and treatment paradigms. To achieve these goals, CE Program research is organized into three Specific Aims: Aim 1: To discover inherited susceptibility markers of cancer risk, determine their function, and leverage this information for precision prevention. Aim 2: To identify and validate non-genetic exposures and their biomarkers affecting tumor development, progression, and outcome, and use this knowledge to develop actionable cancer prevention strategies. Aim 3: To investigate features of tumors and premalignant conditions that influence early detection, progression, and outcomes and capitalize on these findings to inform novel clinical approaches. The CE Program consists of 26 faculty from eight academic departments. Peer-reviewed funding is $6.6M in annual direct costs, with $3.6M from the NCI. This reflects 16 R01/R01-equivalent grants. Members published 905 cancer-relevant scholarly articles (123 high impact; impact factor  10). CE Members hold 10 peer-reviewed MPI awards and have accrued 2,371 participants onto intervention trials since 2016. Scientific investigations led by Members have helped advance knowledge of biological factors – including common medicines; human papilloma virus, HIV, and other viruses; genetic polymorphisms; and radiogenomic signatures – for multiple cancers that are major contributors to mortality and morbidity in Moffitt’s catchment area. Notably, translational impact of CE Members includes changes in HPV-vaccination policy, updates for the interpretation of ovarian and breast cancer genetic testing results, and guideline changes for genetic testing protocols for melanoma-prone families. CE Members also are currently engaged in chemoprevention trials in prostate and lung cancer, aspirin trials in ovarian cancer, developing radiogenomic signatures in lung and pancreatic cancer, and identifying race-specific gene expression profiles in prostate cancer in men of varied ancestral origins to impact clinical and public health.