Alice S Whittemore

Web Site Links

• My Personal Web Site

Research Interests

Cancers of the prostate, breast and ovary account for a major proportion of new cancer cases and cancer deaths in the U.S. each year. We conduct population-based epidemiologic field studies aimed at understanding the etiologies of these cancers. The primary focus concerns the joint effects of genetic predisposition and modifiable lifestyle characteristics on cancer risk. We currently are analyzing data from a large case-control study of prostate cancer in black, white and Asian-American men. We are attempting to delineate the effects on prostate cancer risk of diet, body size, physical activity and family history of prostate cancer. We have established population-based registries of families with multiple cases of prostate cancer, and families with multiple cases of breast and/or ovarian cancer. We are using these registries for linkage analysis in search of cancer-susceptibility genes, for the study of gene-environment interactions, and for estimates of the proportions of cancers attributable to specific genes. Our recent research focus has been on developing improved statistical methods for the design and conduct of studies involving hereditary predisposition and modifiable lifestyle characteristics in the etiologies of site-specific cancers.

Publications

• No evidence of familial correlation in breast cancer metastasis. Whittemore AS, Stearman B, Venne V, Halpern J, Felberg A, McGuire V, Daly M, Buys SS "Breast Cancer Res Treat" 2009
• Common variants on chromosome 6p22.1 are associated with schizophrenia. Shi J, Levinson DF, Duan J, Sanders AR, Zheng Y, Pe'er I, Dudbridge F, Holmans PA, Whittemore AS, Mowry BJ, Olincy A, Amin F, Cloninger CR, Silverman JM, Buccola NG, Byerley WF, Black DW, Crowe RR, Oksenberg JR, Mirel DB, Kendler KS, Freedman R, Gejman PV "Nature" 2009
• Validating genetic risk associations for ovarian cancer through the international Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. Pearce CL, Near AM, Van Den Berg DJ, Ramus SJ, Gentry-Maharaj A, Menon U, Gayther SA, Anderson AR, Edlund CK, Wu AH, Chen X, Beesley J, Webb PM, Holt SK, Chen C, Doherty JA, Rossing MA, Whittemore AS, McGuire V, DiCioccio RA, Goodman MT, Lurie G, Carney ME, Wilkens LR, Ness RB, Moysich KB, Edwards R, Jennison E, Kjaer SK, Hogdall E, Hogdall CK, Goode EL, Sellers TA, Vierkant RA, Cunningham JC, Schildkraut JM, Berchuck A, Moorman PG, Iversen ES, Cramer DW, Terry KL, Vitonis AF, Titus-Ernstoff L, Song H, Pharoah PD, Spurdle AB, Anton-Culver H, Ziogas A, Brewster W, Galitovskiy V, Chenevix-Trench G "Br J Cancer" 2009 ; 2 (100) : 412-20
• Performance of Prediction Models for BRCA Mutation Carriage in Three Racial/Ethnic Groups: Findings from the Northern California Breast Cancer Family Registry. Kurian AW, Gong GD, John EM, Miron A, Felberg A, Phipps AI, West DW, Whittemore AS "Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev" 2009
• Performance of BRCA1/2 mutation prediction models in Asian Americans. Kurian AW, Gong GD, Chun NM, Mills MA, Staton AD, Kingham KE, Crawford BB, Lee R, Chan S, Donlon SS, Ridge Y, Panabaker K, West DW, Whittemore AS, Ford JM "J Clin Oncol" 2008 ; 29 (26) : 4752-8