Cancer Epidemiology Conference

I attended the lecture series on Gene Environment Interaction in Human Cancer Development at JABSOM. Lecturers from across the country presented on topics from the Impact of Host Susceptibility Factors on Tobacco Carcinogen Metabolism and Lung Cancer Risk to the Interaction between Tobacco Smoking and Genetic Susceptibility on Risk a& Survival of Bladder Cancer. The presentation that I found particularly appropriate to the field of epidemiology was presented by NCI’s, Dr. Nathan Rothman. He presented on the Gene-environment Interactions in Studies of Occupational, Environmental, and Tobacco-related Bladder Cancer. He really just told an investigative story that started with identifying a higher OR of bladder cancers in Northern states in the US. He then went on to explain that at the time they attributed this to varying NAT2 acetylation rates among people in this region of the country. However, it was determined that this could not be the sole cause of such an increased risk. In the end, a multitude of contributing factors from smoking to exposure to aromatic amines which activate/deactivate the p53 gene to an acidic urine environment to nocturia all contributed to this population being at greater risk.