Research Focus
Our research focus is three-fold:
- conduct etiologic studies of diet and cancer in diverse populations with a wide range of dietary exposures using an integrated -omics approach,
- implement state-of-the-art tools to improve dietary assessment and reduce measurement error in epidemiologic studies, and
- identify robust dietary biomarkers and develop novel tools for integrating multimodal dietary data in population research.
Research Projects
Current Research Projects
Ultra-processed food consumption, cancer, and mortality in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study
Ultra-processed food consumption and cancer risk in the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial cohort study
Dietary biomarker development in the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP Study
Publications
Burns KF, Purdue MP, Khandpur N, Martinez-Steele E, Sinha R, Hong HG, Loftfield E. Ultra-processed food intake and risk of renal cell carcinoma in the NIH-AARP Diet and health study: a prospective cohort analysis. Lancet Reg Health Am. 2026 Jun 29;62:101548. doi: 10.1016/j.lana.2026.101548. eCollection 2026 Oct. PMID: 42404163, PMCID: PMC13332114
Malcomson FC, Lee SK, O'Connell CP, Shams-White MM, Reedy J, Playdon MC, Tabung FK, Watts EL, Moore SC, Hong HG, Loftfield E. Multi-metabolite Scores of Alignment with the 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Cancer Prevention Recommendations in the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracking in AARP Study. J Nutr. 2026 Aug;156(8):101605. doi: 10.1016/j.tjnut.2026.101605. Epub 2026 May 22. PMID: 42176992, PMCID: PMC13494185
O'Connell CP, Berndt SI, Chudy-Onwugaje K, Kunzmann A, Huang WY, Barry KH, Loftfield E. Association of alcohol intake over the lifetime with colorectal adenoma and colorectal cancer risk in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Cancer. 2026 Feb 1;132(3):e70201. doi: 10.1002/cncr.70201. Erratum in: Cancer. 2026 Feb 15;132(4):e70324. doi: 10.1002/cncr.70324. PMID: 41582658, PMCID: PMC12833583
Further Information
- Christian Abnet, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Celia Byrne, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, USA
- Pietro Ferrari, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, France
- Hyokyoung G. Hong, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Pekka Keski-Rahkonen, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, France
- Neha Khandpur, Wageningen University, Netherlands
- Eurídice Martínez Steele, University of São Paulo, Brazil
- Katherine McGlynn, D National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Mary Playdon, University of Utah, USA
- Marissa Shams-White, American Cancer Society, USA
- Meredith Shiels, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Stephanie Smith-Warner, Harvard University, USA
- Rashmi Sinha, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Vivian Viallon, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, France
- Emily Vogtmann, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA
- Yukiko Yano, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA