Research Highlights Cancer Prevention and Control Program
- Dr Paul Fisher, professor of neurology & neurological sciences, pediatrics has received a "Grand Opportunities (GO)" grant from the National Institutes of Health. The two-year, $1.5 million award will fund a phase I clinical trial investigating the use of the anti-EGFRvIII vaccine for pontine gliomas in children.
- Samuel So, M.D., FACS, Director, The Asian Liver Center at Stanford University has received a 2009 CTSA Seed Grant for studying the Efficacy of Education and Community Center Vaccination and Screening Services to Reduce Chronic Hepatitis B.
- Michaela Kiernan, Ph.D. Senior Research Scientist, has received a 2009 CTSA Seed Grant for examining the Translation of Group-Based Behavioral Obesity Treatments to Extend Community Reach.
- Dr Abby King measured the success of personal and social interventions in health behaviors and outcomes. She and her team analyzed the progress reports and recorded tangible improvements in fitness and well-being in records of over 1000 cancer survivors in a study tracking exercise benefits for cancer survivors. Approximately 80 to 85 percent of the participants have been diagnosed with breast cancer, although people with ovarian, colon, prostate, lymphoma, lung, and other cancers were also represented. The pilot study sets the groundwork for additional investigations that can look more carefully at measureable ways to improve the program and make it more accessible for more diverse populations.
- Postmenopausal women who take combined estrogen plus progestin menopausal hormone therapy for at least five years double their annual risk of breast cancer, according to new analyses from a major study that clearly establishes a link between hormone use and breast cancer, Stanford researchers say. Dr Marcia Stefanick along with a group of WHI investigators analyzed the results of the WHI randomized clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, February, 2009 --in which one study group received 0.625 mg of conjugated equine estrogens plus 2.5 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate daily and another group received placebo--and examined temporal trends in breast-cancer diagnoses in the WHI observational-study cohort. The multi-center study found that women on hormones can quickly reduce their risks of cancer simply by stopping the therapy. Podcast
- Dr Christopher Gardner, assistant professor of medicine, conducted the largest and longest-ever comparison of four popular diets, and the lowest-carbohydrate Atkins diet came out on top. The study mimicked real-world conditions. MedCast
- Dr Marilyn Winkleby has been named the recipient of the 2007 Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E.(Helping Other People Through Empowerment) Award. Details can be found in the Dean’s Newsletter.
- Dr Spiegel is currently conducting a large scale replication study of his finding, published in The Lancet (ii:888-891, 1989) that psychosocial support prolonged survival among metastatic breast cancer patients. This research involves assessment of possible mediating mechanisms of extended survival time, including examination of treatment compliance, diet, activity, and endocrine and immune responses to stress. Recent evidence from his laboratory demonstrates that loss of circadian variation in cortisol, indicative of HPA dysfunction, predicts early mortality with breast cancer.
- Combined estrogen plus progestin increases the risk for breast cancer and may decrease the risk for colorectal cancer; estrogen only does not. Dr Stefanick had a central role in the WHI randomized trials that showed that combined estrogen and progestin (E+P) therapy increases the risk of breast cancer and results in greater harm than health benefit in post-menopausal women (JAMA 2002: 288; 321; JAMA 2003: 289; 3243); whereas, estrogen alone did not increase breast cancer in women with prior hysterectomy (JAMA 2004: 291; 1701; JAMA 2006, in press). In addition to co-chairing the WHI Hormone Advisory Committee throughout the trial, Dr Stefanick led the Stanford team that enrolled and followed over 700 participants in the WHI hormone trials. Related MedCast
- An 8-year low-fat diet intervention, which included increased vegetables, fruits, and grains, on preventing breast and colorectal cancer in a trial of nearly 49,000 postmenopausal women did not result in weight gain, (JAMA 2006, 295; 39) as has been suggested by proponents of low-carbohydrate diets, a finding of importance to cancer prevention research. As Chair of the WHI Steering Committee and PI of the Stanford Clinical Center which randomized over 1300 women into the trial, 550 of whom received the intervention and 98% of whom provided final data, Dr Stefanick played a major role in this landmark cancer prevention trial.
- Is evidence-based medicine a barrier to cost-effective care? Dr Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy and of the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, studies the concept of treatment value and the economics of health care coverage. MedCast
- A 7 year calcium & vitamin D supplementation trial including 36,000 postmenopausal women measured the effects of these supplements in preventing colorectal cancer (NEJM 2006, Feb 16). Dr Stefanick also played a major role in this landmark cancer prevention trial involving approximately 1050 participants at the Stanford site. Home-based exercise intervention programs have higher adherence than group-based programs and a telephone-based program may be a useful alternative to intense face-to-face interventions.
- Drs Abby King and William Haskell demonstrated that older adults completed more exercise sessions in a home-based intervention (J Gerontol Med Sci, 2000). Dr King has shown that mediated approaches and interactive technologies may deliver such programs as effectively as personal counselors and may produce better long-term adherence(Health Educ Res 2002; 17: 5: 627-36).
- Genetic data as predictors of response to smoking cessation treatment. Dr Joel Killen is examining polymorphisms at 5 candidate loci as predictors of smoking cessation to a treatment program that combines a nicotine patch and relapse prevention training (RPT), followed by a maintenance treatment phase during with half of the participants receive buproprion and the other receive a placebo. This is one of the first such trials in which genetic data are included.
This document was last modified: Thursday, 12-Nov-2009 16:12:55 PST
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