Cancer Epidemiology

流行病学（EPI）计划是夏威夷大学癌症中心（UHCC）的创始计划之一，目前由11名正式成员和2名准成员组成，他们是分子，遗传和营养流行病学家，生物统计学家和生物信息学家，主要任命在UHCC。近年来，EPI计划取得了重大进展，EPI教师为癌症中心的研究做出了重大贡献。在当前的资助周期内，该计划成员在同行评审期刊上发表了400多篇与癌症相关的研究文章，比上一个资助周期的214篇有所增加，并从NIH获得了2050万美元的研究赠款，比上一个资助周期的1610万美元有所增加。最近，EPI计划招募了一位新的项目负责人，他是一位具有30年癌症研究经验的分子流行病学家，他为该计划带来了更多的转化研究和跨学科合作，以进一步发展和发展该计划。 EPI计划的目标是确定环境，生活方式和遗传因素，这些因素可归因于不同种族和民族人群中癌症发展和进展的风险，并利用这些知识制定策略和计划，以降低癌症风险并延长患者生存期。为了实现这一目标，EPI计划的成员专注于3个研究重点领域，这些领域都在种族/民族多样性的总体主题下。3个研究领域是1）遗传易感性，2）营养和生活方式和3）传染性病原体。在每个研究重点领域，该计划有多个当前和未来的目标。为了实现这些目标，该计划建立并维护了宝贵的资源，其中包括夏威夷肿瘤登记处，多种族队列，HPV队列，结直肠癌家族登记处和残留组织库。利用这些独特的资源，该计划的成员已经完成了大量的研究项目，其中包括许多分子和遗传流行病学研究，解决单核苷酸多态性在遗传易感性癌症中的作用。许多遗传多态性与几种主要癌症的风险有关，包括乳腺癌、前列腺癌、结肠癌、肺癌、子宫内膜癌和卵巢癌。这些研究对我们理解癌症遗传学和易感性做出了重大贡献。EPI在这一领域的重点将继续扩大，包括更多的遗传特征，它们与环境和生活方式因素的相互作用，以及它们在肿瘤进展和治疗反应中的作用。EPI计划在癌症营养和生活方式研究领域也取得了显着成就。多族裔队列最初主要侧重于饮食和营养。已经对队列进行了许多研究，以了解不同种族群体癌症的饮食和营养。基因-营养相互作用和生活方式相关的表观遗传变化将成为该领域的新热点。EPI教师的HPV研究也产生了关于病毒感染和癌症风险的宝贵信息。这一领域的未来研究将集中在更多的感染因子及其与癌症病因学，检测和预防中的表观遗传调控的相互作用。 EPI计划通过焦点小组、研究合作、教师培训、研讨会和其他联合活动与癌症中心的其他计划进行了重要的互动。这些互动促进了强有力的合作，促进了癌症中心的跨学科和转化研究，以实现减少夏威夷人癌症负担的目标。

The Epidemiology (EPI) Program is one of the founding programs at the University of Hawai'i Cancer Center (UHCC), and currently composed of 11 full members and 2 associate members, who are molecular, genetic and nutritional epidemiologists, biostatistician and bioinformatician with primary appointments at UHCC. The EPI Program has made significant progress in recent years, and the EPI faculty have contributed substantially to the Cancer Center's research. During the current funding cycle, the Program members have published more than 400 cancer-related research articles in peer-reviewed journals, rising from 214 in the previous funding cycle, and obtained $20.5 million research grants from NIH increasing from $16.1 million in the previous grant cycle. Recently, the EPI Program has recruited a new program leader who is a molecular epidemiologist with 30 years of cancer research experience, and he brings to the Program more translational research and interdisciplinary collaboration for further development and growth of the Program. The goal of the EPI Program is to identify environmental, lifestyle and genetic factors that are attributable to the risk of cancer development and progression in populations with diverse race and ethnicity, and use the knowledge to develop strategies and programs to reduce cancer risk and prolong patient survival. To achieve this goal, members of the EPI Program focus on 3 areas of research emphasis which are under the overarching theme of racial/ethnic diversity. The 3 research areas are 1) genetic susceptibility, 2) nutrition and lifestyle and 3) infectious agents. Under each area of research emphasis, the Program has multiple current and future aims. To achieve these aims, the Program has established and maintained valuable resources which include Hawaii Tumor Registry, Multiethnic Cohort, HPV Cohorts, Colorectal Cancer Family Registry, and Residual Tissue Repository. Using these unique resources, the Program members have completed a large number of research projects which include many molecular and genetic epidemiological studies that address the role of single nucleotide polymorphisms in genetic susceptibility to cancer. Numerous genetic polymorphisms have been investigated for their association with the risk of several major cancers, including the breast, prostate, colon, lung, endometrium and ovary. These studies have contributed significantly to our understanding of cancer genetics and susceptibility. EPI focus in this area will continue to expand to include more genetic features, their interaction with environmental and lifestyle factors and their involvement In tumor progression and treatment response. The EPI Program has also accomplished significantly in the research area of nutrition and lifestyle in cancer. The multiethnic cohort was established initially focusing mainly on diet and nutrition. Numerous studies have been conducted on the cohort to understand diet and nutrition in cancer in different ethnic groups. Gene-nutrition interaction and lifestyle-related epigenetic changes will be new focuses in this area. HPV research by the EPI faculty also generates valuable information on viral infection and cancer risk. Future research in this area will focus on more infectious agents and their interaction with epigenetic regulation in cancer etiology, detection and prevention. The EPI Program has significant interaction with other programs at the Cancer Center through focus groups, research collaboration, faculty training, seminars and other joint activities. The interactions foster strong collaborations that facilitate interdisciplinary and translational research at the Cancer Center to achieve the goal of reducing the cancer burden among people in Hawai'i.