Speaker: Xiao-Ou Shu, M.D., MPH, Ph.D. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine
Associate Director for Global Health, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Co-Leader, Cancer Epidemiology Program, VICC

Thursday, March 24, 2022, 8 pm- 9 pm | Zoom Meeting

Abstract: Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, claimed 10 million lives in 2020. Cancer incidence and mortality vary greatly geographically and across populations, owing largely to differences in environmental exposures, lifestyle and access of quality health care, and to less extent, genetic make-up. Low-and-middle-income countries shoulder most of the cancer burden. In 2020, approximately 70% of the cancer death occurred in low-and-middle-income countries.  By capitalizing on the differences in cancer spectra, genetic structure as well as unique pattens of lifestyles and environmental exposures in different populations, international studies provide exceptional opportunities to improve the understanding of cancer etiology and progression. This talk will introduce how global cancer research has facilitated scientific discovery, contributed to reduction of the cancer disparity.

Bio: Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu is an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, co-leader for the Cancer Epidemiology Program, and Associate Director for Global Health at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. She has been consistently funded by US National Institute of Health since 1996, serving as the principal investigator for more than 23 major research grants and 3 training grants. Dr. Shu has over 35 years of experience in conducting large-scale epidemiological studies on cancer and other chronic diseases. She is the PI of the Shanghai Men’s Health Study (SMHS) and a leading investigator of the Shanghai Women’s Health Study (SWHS), two cohorts that contribute over 130,000 participants to the Asia Cohort Consortium (ACC). She is a founding member of several large epidemiologic consortia, including the After Breast Cancer Pooling Project (ABCPP; N=18,000), the Asian Genetic Epidemiology Network for Obesity-Related Traits (AGEN-Obesity; N=134,500) and the Calcium and Lung Cancer Pooling Project (N=1,900,000), for which she is the lead investigator. Dr. Shu has more than 1000 publications in peer-reviewed life science journals, with a H-index of 134. She was recognized by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate Analytics as a “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Her research has contributed immeasurably to our understanding of genetic, lifestyle and clinical determinants of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer risk and prognosis, and her research findings have lead change of national recommendations.