University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)

Overview

The Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention and Control Program's (CEPCP) mission is to assess cancer risk and individual cancer susceptibility, and to evaluate the effectiveness of new cancer control methods. Members of the Program are dedicated to the application of new biomarkers of environmental exposures, biomarkers of personal cancer susceptibility, and biomarkers of early cancer detection to epidemiological studies in relevant populations.

The CEPCP includes two interacting groups of investigators, representing two major areas of focus:

1. The Epidemiology Group studies human cancer etiology in terms of defined environmental exposures and genetically determined personal susceptibilities. This group includes investigators with particular interests related to those physiologic factors and associated measures that mediate risk for common reproductive and hormone-related malignancies, such as ovary, breast, and prostate cancer.
2. The Prevention and Control Group evaluates and validates cancer intervention strategies in human test populations. This group includes investigators with particular interests related to early colorectal and lung cancer detection, by means of screening flexible sigmoidoscopy and low-radiation-dose helical chest computed tomography, respectively.

The CEPCP combines special expertise with respect to (1) epidemiologic methods for evaluating new laboratory-based cancer biomarkers and for studying risk factor-disease associations in naturally occurring human populations and (2) community-directed methods for implementing and evaluating novel cancer prevention interventions in specially constituted research populations. The CEPCP achieves this structure by organizing cancer epidemiologists, cancer control clinicians, behavioral scientists, and laboratory scientists, who together have access to unique population groups, intervention methodologies, and laboratory measures.