NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 1

The third annual DCP Program

Operations Staff (POS) Seminar was

held at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on

October 7-8, 2002. The purpose of the seminar was to promote growth and development

of the POS and to identify ways to continue to

improve the operating policies and procedures

for the work performed in the Division of

Cancer Prevention (DCP). The “real work”

module was facilitated by Dr. Rhey Palmer.

Participants worked through group discussions to develop recommendations and actions

to the issues identified by DCP Coordinating

Unit members and key others. The training

module was facilitated by Ms. Diane Rhodes

from Impact Consulting Services. In preparation for this training, the participants completed a Communication Style Survey –

“Managing for Success: Team Building

Version.” The results were discussed during

various team building activities while working

on the theme: “Communication plays a vital

role in team work and collaboration.”

Since January 1999 the mission of the

Program Operations Staff Project Team (formerly known as the Non-Scientific Staff

Project Team) has been to identify and recommend new and/or improved operating policies

and procedures for our Division. That mission

continues – into the Future! ■

DCP Program Operations Staff Seminar: “Building the Future”

LINDA (“LINDY”) WONG AND GLORIA RASBAND

IN THIS ISSUE

DCP Program Operations 

Staff Seminar: 

“Building the Future” 1

Biometry Research Group’s

Macro Journey 

through Microarrays 2

Presidential Management

Intern/Management

Intern/Emerging Leaders

Program 2

History of Cancer Prevention:

Jerome Cornfield 3

Cancer Prevention 

Fellowship Program 4

The First Annual Cancer

Prevention Fellows’ 

Scientific Symposium 5

Training the Next 

Generation of Leaders 

in Cancer Prevention 6

Transitions 8

An International Workshop 

on Diagnostic Guidelines for

HNPCC and MSI 10

PreventionPOST Credits 10

A New Opportunity 

in the Cancer Prevention

Fellowship Program 11

Endpoints 12

March 2003

V O L UME 5/ISSUE 1

NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION

OF CANCER PREVENTION

PreventionPOST

Participants in the third annual DCP Program Operations Staff Seminar: pictured from left to right are (back row)

Shannon Brandon, Rhey Palmer, Susan Winer, Christine Donati, Gloria Rasband; (middle row) Linda Gray, Sara

Hursen, Jenny Gaegler, Linda (“Lindy”) Wong, Barbara Redding; (bottom row) Florence Mann, Joyce Browne, Linda

Bremerman, Dianne Gary, Angela Green, Jill Hughes.

POS Seminar participants (left to right) Shannon Brandon,

Myra Terrell, and Angela Green.

(Left to right) Sara Hursen, Felicia Carr, Tracy Ellis, and

Christine Donati at the POS Seminar.
2 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

Genomic profiling has recently found successful application in disease subtype identification and in drug discovery. Increasingly, the Division of Cancer Prevention

(DCP) is involved with a growing number of cancer prevention studies that use genomic profiling. Correspondingly,

members of the Biometry Research Group (BRG), the statistical core of DCP, have spent the past several years learning

about these new technologies and, especially, the role that statistical thinking plays in the design and analysis of data arising

from genomic profiling studies. A new collaborative effort

involving members of the BRG, the U.S. Department of

Agriculture (USDA), and DCP’s Nutritional Science Research

Group has been established over the past six months for the

purposes of designing and analyzing studies addressing the

interaction between genomic profile and diet. As “training” is

the theme of this issue of the PreventionPOST, I thought I

would take this opportunity to chronicle the BRG’s journey

from casual bystander to active participant in the design and

analysis of gene expression microarray studies. 

The spotted complementary DNA microarray, or cDNA

microarray for short, was invented by Pat Brown’s lab at

Stanford University and introduced in their 1995 Science article. Our first exposures to the topic at BRG were two seminars held in the spring and summer of 2000. The first, given

by Lisa McShane of the Biometric Research Branch (BRB) of

NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, led off

with issues in image quality and proceeded all the way to the

final statistical analyses. Most striking was the importance of

image quality, and how the statistician needs to be concerned

about which segmentation algorithm the investigator has used.

Mark Van der Laan of the University of California-Berkeley

gave the second lecture on the parametric bootstrap, a tool for

conducting formal inference on classes discovered via any clustering algorithm. Aside from the theoretical content, the main

message from that talk was the importance of global inference.

Next, in the fall of 2001, we located on the Berkeley

Statistics web page a technical report by Sandrine Dudoit, who

was a postdoctoral fellow in Pat Brown’s lab during the 2000-

2001 academic year. Her report discussed the use of class prediction methods (discrimination) to assess the validity/reproducibility of several published reports based upon class discovery (clustering). A collaborative effort consisting of Dudoit,

Robert Gentleman of Harvard University, and others, has

developed free source software for the pre-processing and

analysis of both cDNA and oligonucleotide microarrays.

Developers at the Insightful Corporation, producers of the popular S-Plus statistical package, have incorporated this freeware

into their new product. Last February several of us took a

class, given by representatives from that company through the

National Institute’s of Health Center for Information

Technology (CIT), in which Dudoit’s preprocessing techniques

Biometry Research Group’s Macro Journey through Microarrays GRANT IZMIRLIAN

Presidential Management Intern/Management Intern/Emerging Leaders Program SUSAN WINER

Does your research group have too many great ideas

and no one to implement them? If the answer is “yes,”

then the Federal Government can meet your needs.

Bright, creative, one-of-a-kind individuals belong to a

special group of workers – the Presidential Management

Intern/Management Intern/Emerging Leaders Program.

These graduate-level individuals compete to join one of

these programs and then work in rotations through various areas of government operations, such as budget,

administrative and personnel, contracts, and marketing.

The intern participates in each rotation from three to nine

months, depending upon his or her needs and the needs of

the receiving office. In addition, the intern can perform

“shadow rotations” lasting only a few days. These are not

full-time equivalent positions, nor do the interns receive

salary from the offices in which they elect to do their

rotations. This is a win-win situation for everyone

involved – great ideas are born and implemented and the

intern benefits from a valuable mentoring experience. After

completion of the 2-year internship, many of these individuals have the opportunity to become a permanent part of

the NIH staff.

Carol Storm manages this elite program at the NIH and

Christina Bruce is the manager at the NCI. New interns start

in July of each year. Ms. Storm schedules a series of oral presentations to be given by offices with potential opportunities

for these emerging leaders. Subsequently, each intern schedules interviews with those offices in which they are interested

in working. It is the responsibility of the intern to schedule

his or her rotations.

Chris Chavis, a Management Intern, recently rotated

through the Office of Preventive Oncology and assisted with

the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program’s marketing

brochures, program web site, and databases. ■

continued on page 7
NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 3

GRAÇA M. DORES AND DOUGLAS L. WEED

Jerome Cornfield

1912-1979

(a*d)/(b*c)†. Cornfield’s crossproduct was first described in the

Journal of the National Cancer

Institute in 1951 (1). Today, this

mathematical formula serves as

the foundation for relative risk

estimation from case-control

studies. Jerome Cornfield, or

“Jerry”, as he was best known

among colleagues, further

enhanced the use of case-control

studies by developing the multiple logistic risk function that allowed the concurrent study of

several risk factors for a disease. A medical statistician of

international acclaim, he was considered a “renaissance man”

with unmatched versatility in the theory and application of

statistics, epidemiology, clinical trials research, and public

health. Cornfield made important contributions not only to

cancer research, but also to the understanding of risk factors

for heart disease, safety of the polio vaccine, and diabetes. 

Born in the Bronx, Cornfield graduated from New

York University with a Bachelor of Arts in History and began

his career at the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) in

1935, where he obtained his only training in statistics and

mathematics. At the BLS he made key contributions to the

theory of statistical sampling that today serve as the basis for

survey and marketing research. In 1947 he joined the

Department of Statistical Methods of the U.S. Public Health

Service at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). In addition to

his contributions to epidemiology, he pioneered work in the

design, execution, and analysis of controlled clinical trials and

helped to pave the way for the large prevention trials of the

1960s and ‘70s involving thousands of participants, in contrast to the hundreds that had participated in the 1950s. 

Although Cornfield was primarily involved in cardiovascular disease trials, similar approaches are used as a major

investigative tool in cancer prevention trials today. Jerry was

also one of the major contributors to the Surgeon General’s

report in 1964 on “Smoking and Health,” establishing the

causal association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

He apparently believed that this finding was not just a “statistical association,” given that he relinquished his pipe following his studies at NCI. Retiring from the Federal Government

in 1967, Cornfield initially took a position at the University of

Pittsburgh and subsequently at the George Washington

University, where he was able to share his gift for teaching,

enhanced by his gentle nature, inquisitive mind, and keen

sense of humor. 

HISTORY OF CANCER PREVENTION

REFERENCES

(1) Cornfield J. A Method of estimating comparative rates from clinical data. 

Applications to cancer of the lung, breast, and cervix. J Natl Cancer Inst 

1951;11:1269-1275.

† Cornfield’s cross-product: 

In epidemiology, when the occurrence of the disease under study is rare (e.g., affects <10% of the population), the odds ratio estimates the relative

risk of developing the disease in individuals with a given exposure. A “2-by-2 table” is utilized to arrange the data, as depicted below.

In this example, the disease under study is lung cancer and the exposure of interest is tobacco smoke.

a = number of individuals with lung cancer who were exposed to

tobacco smoke

b = number of individuals without lung cancer who were exposed 

to tobacco smoke

c = number of individuals with lung cancer who were not 

exposed to tobacco smoke

d = number of individuals without lung cancer who were not 

exposed to tobacco smoke.

The odds ratio is equal to: (a*d)/(b*c). ■

Exposed

Not Exposed

Cases

(disease)

a

c

Controls

(no disease)

b

d
In December 2002, the following fellows were each presented

with a Cancer Prevention Research Training Merit Award: thirdyear fellow Erik Auguston and fourth-year fellows David

Berrigan, Graça Dores, and Jackie Lavigne. This award is presented by the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program in recognition of outstanding performance as a Cancer Prevention Fellow.

Heather Poetschke Klug, a third-year fellow, received a travel

award from the American Society for Photobiology to attend the

Annual Meeting in Quebec City, Canada, in July 2002.

Fourth-year fellows David Berrigan and Rachel StolzenbergSolomon each successfully competed for a National Institutes of

Health (NIH) Fellow Award for Research Excellence (FARE); only

twenty-five percent of 828 applicants from all of NIH were selected to receive one of these FARE travel awards.

Third-year fellow Dina Paltoo received the American Association

for Cancer Research AFLAC Scholar-in-Training Award at the

Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting in Boston,

Massachusetts in October 2002. 

Tamy Buckel, a first-year fellow, and Dina Paltoo and Susan

Thomas Vadaparampil, third-year fellows, were selected to participate in the New Investigators Workshop at the Annual

Meeting of the American Society of Preventive Oncology in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in March 2003. ■

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE

A W ARDS 

Best wishes to Maja Zecevic and her husband, Vanja Bogdanovic; 

and to Ashley Smith and her partner, Jacqueline Ann Neilson, on

their recent marriages. 

Congratulations to Kenneth Hance and his wife, Dena, on the

birth of their son, Austin; to Rachael Stolzenberg-Solomon and

her husband, Jeff Solomon, on the birth of their son, Adam Elan;

and to Janet Tooze and her husband, Andy, on the birth of their

son, Alexander Austin! ■

The Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program had a busy fall.

One hundred and six applications were received, the highest

number since the first year of the program in 1987, when 110

applications were submitted. Thirty interviews were scheduled

on October 30, 31, and November 1, and seventeen applicants

were invited to join the fellowship program. During the three

days of interviews, former fellows were invited back to the

NCI to give lectures: Paul J. Limburg, M.D., M.P.H., from the

Mayo Clinic of Rochester; Karen G. Woodson, Ph.D., M.P.H.,

from the Center for Cancer Research, NCI; and Rick Boyd,

Ed.D., M.S.P.H., from George Washington University. These

former fellows presented lectures on their current research and

also spoke about the opportunities in the Cancer Prevention

Fellowship Program and how the Program has helped them in

their careers.

The newest venture in the Cancer Prevention Fellowship

Program is the formation of a new career track within the program - the Clinical Cancer Prevention Research Track.

Information and in-depth details pertaining to this career

opportunity will be included in our new brochures and materials for the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program - 2004.

During the fall interviews, several applicants expressed interest

in pursuing the clinical research track.

In our ongoing search for qualified applicants, recruitment

for the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program has been very

busy this year. Recent meetings attended include the American

Association for Cancer Research premier annual International

Meeting on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research,

American Public Health Association, and the American

College of Preventive Medicine. Spring 2003 will take us to the

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Career

Fair, the Cancer Health Disparities Summit meeting, and the

meetings of several professional societies: American Society for

Preventive Oncology, American Association for Cancer

Research, Oncology Nursing Society, Experimental Biology,

Digestive Diseases Week, and American Society of Clinical

Oncology. Assistance in the booth is provided by Cancer

Prevention Fellows attending the meetings. ■

At the Forefront of Training SUSAN WINER

4 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

C ANCER PREVENTION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM 

Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program

SUSAN PERKINS AND SUSAN WINER
NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 5

On September 11, 2002 a new tradition was established in the National Cancer Institute’s CancerPrevention Fellowship Program (CPFP) in the

Division of Cancer Prevention - the Cancer Prevention

Fellows’ Scientific Symposium. This inaugural event was

held at The Cloisters, located on the campus of the National

Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. In the spirit of

commitment to fellowship that dominates the Program, the

First Annual Cancer Prevention Fellows’ Scientific Symposium

promoted scientific exchange and camaraderie among current

fellows, former fellows, and the CPFP scientific staff. Following

introductory remarks by Dr. Jackie Lavigne, a current Cancer

Prevention Fellow, and Dr. Douglas Weed, Director of the

CPFP and Chief of the Office of Preventive Oncology, Dr. Peter

Greenwald, Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention and

the featured speaker, opened the educational session with his

talk entitled “Progress in Cancer Prevention.” Throughout the

day, invited presentations by current fellows encompassed a

wide array of topics. Dr. Claudine Kavanaugh discussed the

effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on mammary

tumor development in a transgenic mouse model; Kerri

McGowan Lowrey, Esq., J.D., M.P.H., addressed ethical and

legal concerns in advertising for health research; Dr. David

Berrigan reviewed Hispanic acculturation and health behavior

patterns in the United States; and Dr. Jackie Lavigne shared

results of the effects of alcohol intake on serum insulin-like

growth factor (IGF) and IGF binding protein levels measured

in postmenopausal women. 

In her Mid-morning Remarks, Dr. Shine Chang, Associate

Director of the CPFP, reflected on the importance of fellowship and cancer prevention science. This was followed by

another special highlight of

the day, the Career Pathways

Workshop, the success of

which was attributed to the

participation of the former

Cancer Prevention Fellows.

During the Workshop’s Panel

Discussion, former fellows

each shared personal “pearls

of wisdom” gleaned from

their career experiences and

achievements in the field of

cancer prevention. Topics of

the ensuing Group Discussion

centered on job-seeking,

interviewing and negotiating

skills, and career opportunities in cancer prevention.

The afternoon Poster Session highlighted the fellows’

diverse scientific interests, united by their focus on cancer

prevention, while senior fellows had the opportunity to

describe their ongoing projects and exchange ideas with

first- and second-year fellows, former fellows, and CPFP

scientific staff. Dr. Stephen Hursting, Deputy Director of the

CPFP, provided the Concluding Remarks, summarizing the

day’s events and the significance of the first symposium. It

was a rewarding and enjoyable day, and the Second Annual

Cancer Prevention Fellows’ Scientific Symposium in 2003 is

eagerly awaited by all! ■

Cancer Prevention Fellows, (left to right) Janet Tooze, Leah Mechanic,

and Kerri McGowan Lowrey, at the afternoon Poster Session.

Former Cancer Prevention Fellows, (left to right) Terryl Hartman, Ernie

Hawk, Joanne Dorgan, Stephen Hursting, Sheila Prindiville (not seen) and

Susan Rossi, participate in the Career Pathways Workshop. Other panel

participants (not shown) were Lisa Colbert, Gary Ellison, Pamela Mink,

Ann O’Mara, and Karen Woodson. 

The First Annual Cancer Prevention Fellows’ Scientific Symposium

GRAÇA M. DORES

Dr. Peter Greenwald, the featured

speaker, presents his talk on

“Progress in Cancer Prevention.”
E

stablished less than three years ago by Dr. Stephen

Hursting, Deputy Director of the Office of Preventive

Oncology, Division of Cancer Prevention, the

Molecular Prevention Laboratory has several interlocking

functions. Its raison d’être is to provide Cancer Prevention

Fellows experience with the basic techniques of molecular

and cellular biology that are being applied to cutting-edge

research in the fields of molecular epidemiology, bionutrition,

chemoprevention, and translational research. The Laboratory

fulfills this mission in several ways. First, it provides logistical support for the laboratory course in which first-year fellows participate as part of the National Cancer Institute

Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention. Open only to fellows, this eighteen-hour training laboratory uses hands-on

exercises to introduce fellows to crucial techniques in current

use, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); DNA isolation, mapping, and sequencing; gel electrophoresis and

Southern, northern, and western blotting; complementary

DNA microarray fabrication and use; and ELISAs and other

immunoassays. The goal of this course is not to turn all of

the fellows into molecular biologists but rather to give them

tangible reference points for understanding how these techniques work.

Second, fellows can use the Molecular Prevention

Laboratory to obtain advanced training in laboratory techniques that they then apply to their research in cancer prevention. In the last two years, ten fellows have taken advantage of the opportunities provided by the facility. In practice,

these experiences have varied widely. Some fellows have

come for short-term training to learn specific techniques,

such as cell culture methods. Others, lacking access to a “wet

lab” in their primary research group, have used the facility

for weeks, months, or longer to process tissue samples, 

perform immunoassays on human or rodent serum samples,

or run PCR reactions and gels, for example.

Third, a number of these fellows have further benefited

from the fact that the Laboratory also accommodates the

research activities of the Nutrition and Molecular

Carcinogenesis Section. As part of the NCI’s Laboratory of

Biosystems and Cancer (Dr. J. Carl Barrett, Laboratory

Chief), this arrangement makes possible intermediate and

long-term mentored research experiences for fellows. The

Section (http://ccr.cancer.gov/Staff/Staff.asp?StaffID=295) is

under the direction of Dr. Hursting, Section Chief and

Adjunct Investigator in the Center for Cancer Research, and

includes Dr. Susan Perkins, who coordinates Laboratory training and research activities, and Heather Wimbrow, Senior

Research Technician. The focus of ongoing work in this

Section is the integration of experiments using transgenic animal models and advanced molecular biologic approaches

(such as DNA microarrays) with epidemiologic and in vitro

studies to identify and characterize diet-gene interactions relevant to cancer prevention. Current areas of interest include

the mechanisms underlying the energy balance-cancer association, with a particular focus on the role of hormones that may

be related to carcinogenesis, such as leptin, insulin-like growth

factor (IGF)-1, and IGF binding proteins. Several current fellows and now-former fellows interested in focusing on this

area of cancer prevention research have collaborated with the

Section on animal experiments designed to investigate these

potential mechanisms.

The Molecular Prevention Laboratory is based at the NCIFrederick campus (http://web.ncifcrf.gov) within Fort Detrick,

a military installation in historic Frederick, Maryland. Less

than 35 miles north of the Executive Plaza building complex,

it is easily reached by a drive up I-270; parking is plentiful.

6 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

The Molecular Prevention Laboratory: 

Training the Next Generation of Leaders in Cancer Prevention SUSAN N. PERKINS

Dr. Volker Mai, a former fellow now on the faculty of the University of

Maryland School of Medicine, continues to collaborate with the Section. 

Heather Wimbrow, senior research technician, and Dr. Lisa Colbert, 

a former fellow currently at the National Institute on Aging and soon 

to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, perfom Enzyme-Linked

Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) to measure hormone levels 

in serum from tumor-prone mice that have been allowed to exercise. 
NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 7

The Molecular Prevention Laboratory continued from page 8

Continued progress in cancer prevention and control will

require that the next generation of scientists be familiar with 

a broad range of concepts and techniques in molecular and

cellular biology and genetics. Knowledgeable young scientists

so equipped will be better prepared to participate in the multidisciplinary research that will most rapidly advance the field.

The purpose of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program is

to train individuals to become leaders in the field of cancer

prevention and control; the Molecular Prevention Laboratory

is a significant element of the Program. ■

Some current members of the lab (left to right): Heather Wimbrow, Volker

Mai, Nomeli Nuñez, Steve Hursting (Section Chief), Jennifer 

Eng-Wong, Susan Perkins, David Berrigan, and Jackie Lavigne. 

were presented. Also that month, Rich Simon of the BRB

spoke at the DCP Colloquium. In June we attended a course

given by Simon’s group through CIT.

Another pivotal event in our training occurred last year during our preparations for the Applications of Bioinformatics in

Cancer Detection Workshop, in which Richard Fagerstrom,

Simon Rosenfeld, and I took part. One of the main goals of

that project team was to familiarize itself sufficiently with current research in order to be able to select speakers from among

the experts in the field. A second objective was to produce an

expository report on the workshop themes for the workshop

notebook. This combination of tasks required a deeper investigation and understanding of not only the statistical literature

but of the landmark substantive publications as well.

Of course the deepest level of understanding began to

develop once we had datasets to analyze. Steve Hursting (Office

of Preventive Oncology and the Center for Cancer Research)

and his long-time collaborator Tom Wang (USDA) brought me

in on the analysis of one of their studies. Soon, Simon Rosenfeld

was also participating in a collaboration with Tom Wang and

John Milner (Nutritional Science Research Group). Both studies

are using cDNA microarrays to assess the effects of dietary components (genistein, a phytoestrogen in soy, in the first case, and

diallyl disulfide, an organosulfur compound abundant in garlic,

in the second) on gene expression in a human prostate cancer

cell line. Analytical tools used in this work are in part taken

from the literature and are in part being developed in-house.

The “take away message” from our journey can be

summarized in the following points. First, the imaging and

data preprocessing steps are of paramount importance. If possible, experimenters should specify a “Data Adaptive” or even

“Chen-Dougherty” segmentation algorithm at the time of

scanning. With regards to analysis of data, more and more of

these studies are hypothesis driven and involve only a few

experimental groups with replicates. In our experience, logged

relative expressions are quite close to normally distributed, so

use of a mixed variances linear model is appropriate. This is in

contrast to many of the published findings based upon cluster

analysis, which is only appropriate when the number of classes

is large and unknown and the experimental design is not

hypothesis driven. As a final point, global p-values insure that

the false discovery rate is controlled. For example, Bonferonni

adjustment means that for a global p-value of 0.05 one assigns

a per gene p-value of 0.05 divided by the number of genes.

There are other techniques for controlling false discovery rate

introduced by Benjamini and Hochberg and applied in this setting by Dudoit.

So far all of the analyses in the BRG have involved cDNA

microarrays, but we are beginning to move into Affymetrix

oligonucleotide microarrays as well. It is certain that genomic

profiling technology will continue to develop and that entirely

new types of research questions and experimental techniques

will be possible in a few years. More sessions on these topics

are planned in the DCP Colloquia Series; see http://www3.cancer.gov/prevention/pob/fellowship/colloquia.html for details. As

a final note, we now have an extensive library of references and

would be happy to discuss these with interested individuals. ■

Biometry Research Group’s Macro Journey through Microarrays continued from page 2
8 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

We would like you to join us in welcoming new staff to DCP:

Dr. Cindy Davis has joined the Nutritional Science

Research Group. Cindy received her doctoral degree 

in Nutritional Sciences with a minor in Human Cancer

Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Before coming to the NCI she had been a Research

Nutritionist at the Grand Forks Human Nutrition

Research Center where she was examining the effects

of trace minerals, particularly selenium and copper, 

on cancer susceptibility.

D AVE KAUSAL

Master Sergeant (Ret) Alfred Brown has joined the

Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group. He

has accepted a position in DCP as an Administrative

Program Assistant. Al is a decorated veteran, who

brings a wealth of experience to his new position

after having served for more than 20 years in the 

U. S. Air Force. 

TRANSITIONS

Dr. Jason Vourlekis is with the Lung and Upper

Aerodigestive Cancer Research Group. Jason comes

to NCI from the National Jewish Medical and

Research Center and the University of Colorado

Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. He is

board-certified in pulmonary medicine and critical

care medicine. Jason’s research interests include

pathogenesis of lung cancer, interstitial pulmonary

diseases, and experimental therapeutics.

Fidelia Acevedo is an Administrative Program

Assistant in the Early Detection Research Network .

She says she is a recent “transplant” from Arizona

and describes herself as a real “person-to-person”

employee.
NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 9

BEST WISHES TO: 

Carole Watson has left the DCP Administrative

Resource Center to transition to the Division of Human

Resource Operations, Office of Human Resources, NIH.

Don Johnsey has joined the Cancer Biomarkers

Research Group in DCP as a Program Specialist. 

He is currently enrolled in the Master of Science

Biotechnology Program at Johns Hopkins University

concentrating in Bioinformatics. Don has a strong

background in clinical reference laboratories, experience with the development and implantation of a

global database of antimicrobial resistance, and a

history of managing contracts and training individuals that are disabled or disadvantaged.

Charmaine Boswell is new Administrative Program

Assistant in the Cancer Biomarkers Research Group.

She began her career with the Federal Government 

as a Stay-In-School employee in 1996, while attending

Bowie State University, majoring in Television

Production. In 1999 she began working in the Division

of Basic Sciences (Center for Cancer Research), where

she had been prior to coming to DCP.

Dr. Mirta Dansky recently joined the Gastrointestinal

and Other Cancers Research Group. Mirta is board

certified in Gastroenterology and trained at the

University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Most recently, she worked for the Pan American Health

Organization in the area of infectious disease surveillance. She has a special interest in the prevention of

hepatocellular and pancreatic cancers. 
1 0 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Division of Cancer

Prevention held a workshop in November 1996 entitled “The Intersection of Pathology and Genetics in the

Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer

(HNPCC) Syndrome” that led to the standardization of guidelines that are currently known

as the Bethesda Criteria. In December 1997

another workshop entitled “The International

Workshop on Microsatellite Instability (MSI)

and Replication Error (RER) Phenotypes in

Cancer Detection and Familial Predisposition”

was held in Bethesda, Maryland.

Recommendations from this workshop led to

the development of five specific microsatellite

markers (NCI markers for MSI); these markers

have broad utility in several experimental and diagnostic settings. Understanding of MSI and immunohistochemical

detection of DNA mismatch repair defects have advanced

significantly, and recent findings require a new look at the

current issues and guidelines for HNPCC diagnosis.

In order to update the existing Bethesda Criteria and

provide a fresh look at the current status of clinical diagnosis of HNPCC and the MSI phenotype, an international

workshop on diagnostic guidelines was held in Bethesda on

December 11-13, 2002. Cosponsored by NCI’s Division of

Cancer Prevention, Division of Cancer Control and

Population Sciences, and Center for Cancer Research, this

workshop convened experts in HNPCC and the MSI phenotype that is associated with familial as well as sporadic forms

of colorectal cancer.

Participants included leaders in HNPCC

research, such as Henry Lynch, Hans Vasen,

Albert de la Chapelle, Paivi Peltomaki, Annika

Lindblom, Stanley Hamilton, Jeremy Jass, C.

Richard Boland, and J. Carl Barrett, among

others. Attendees reviewed and updated existing criteria for HNPCC and MSI and provided

recommendations to NCI based on new

insights into the disease and its manifestations.

Participants also discussed effective strategies

for identifying HNPCC mutation carriers,

defining the MSI phenotype in cancer, and

evaluating correlations between the MSI phenotype and

pathological stages of tumor progression and clinical outcome. In addition, they focused on methodological and quality control issues for MSI assays, recommended guidelines

for scoring and reproducibility of these assays, and discussed

alternative methods for the detection of a mismatch repair

defect or MSI phenotype. Finally, a minimum set of MSI

markers that would increase sensitivity and specificity of

detection of HNPCC and sporadic MSI cancers was recommended. A final draft of these guidelines is currently in

preparation and will be published in a nationally recognized

biomedical journal for dissemination to the community. ■

Conference Highlight: An International Workshop on Diagnostic Guidelines for Hereditary

Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer and Microsatellite Instability

A S AD UMAR

EDITORIAL GROUP:

Susan Perkins

(Editor-in-Chief),

Graça Dores, 

Grant Izmirlian

DESIGN GROUP:

Doris Browne, 

Dee Sullivan 

WEB GROUP:

Kathleen Foster, 

Jacob Kagan, 

Asad Umar

PRINTING GROUP:

Jacob Kagan, 

Doug Midthune

DISTRIBUTION GROUP:

Dave Kausal (photos), 

Susan Winer, 

Gloria Rasband

PreventionPOST

DCP Newsletter Project Team

THE DCP NEWSLETTER

PROJECT TEAM WELCOMES

NEW MEMBERS 

DORIS BROWNE, 

JACOB KAGAN, 

DOUG MIDTHUNE, 

AND ASAD UMAR!
NEWSLETTER OF THE NCI DIVISION OF CANCER PREVENTION 1 1

GRAÇA DORES

CART OON

Two years after introducing the Ethics of Prevention and

Public Health Track, the Cancer Prevention Fellowship

Program (CPFP) announces another new addition - the

Clinical Cancer Prevention Research Track. In 2003, physicians, nurses, and other individuals with training in the clinical

sciences will have the opportunity to combine their clinical acumen with their interest in cancer prevention research. To

enhance training in research methodology and to complement

the focus of this track, individuals may pursue a 1-year didactic program to complete either a Master’s degree in clinical

investigation, clinical research, or clinical epidemiology or a

Master of Public Health degree. Eligible fellows may obtain

clinical privileges at nearby medical institutions to enable their

research endeavors and may also obtain privileges to maintain

their clinical skills and state-of-the-art practice principles.

Potential research opportunities include clinical trial investigations, comprising studies of chemopreventive agents, screening and early detection, or other interventions. Alternate pursuits could incorporate clinical outcomes and effectiveness

research, study of ethical issues in clinical prevention, or

behavioral studies in at-risk populations. Fellows may choose

to integrate clinical activities with other cross-disciplinary

endeavors, for example, a laboratory experience that would

enable investigation of biologic mechanisms of carcinogenesis

and identification of potential targets for cancer prevention.

Rotations in the Division of Cancer Prevention, to participate

in clinical prevention protocol reviews, will further enrich the

training experience.

Together with fellows in the parent CPFP and in the Ethics

of Prevention and Public Health Track, those in the Clinical

Cancer Prevention Research Track will also take part in weekly

Fellows’ Research Meetings, weekly Colloquia, the Summer

Curriculum in Cancer Prevention, the Molecular Prevention

Laboratory, and all other hallmark CPFP activities. ■

The Clinical Cancer Prevention Research Track: 

A New Opportunity in the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program

GRAÇA M. DORES AND DOUGLAS L. WEED
The first issue of the PreventionPOST rolled off the presses

just three years ago. Under the leadership of its Editor-inChief, Doug Weed, the DCP Newsletter Project Team has consistently achieved its goal: to maintain a high-quality newsletter publication for the Division of Cancer Prevention, with

regular publication and wide distribution within the National

Cancer Institute and for the prevention community at large.

Nothing stays the same, of course, and Doug has decided to

step down in order to focus on other projects. Fortunately for

its new Editor-in-Chief, he is handing over a fine team and a

set of established procedures that have made it relatively easy

for me to step into those large shoes.

Although the newsletter naturally evolves as new members

join the team and bring fresh perspectives and innovative

ideas, much of it will stay the same. Regular features bring us:

news about people in DCP (“Transitions” and “DCP

Awardees”); updates on the Cancer Prevention Fellowship

Program (“At the Forefront of Training”); the biographical

snippet that I always find wonderfully educational (“History

ENDPOINTS

The More Things Change...

SUSAN N. PERKINS

Editor-in-Chief

of Cancer Prevention”); and, of course, the cartoon!

A new recurrent feature will be a piece showcasing a DCP

program. For this issue the article about the DCP Molecular

Prevention Laboratory also ties into the issue’s theme of training activities and opportunities. Other theme-related stories

that go beyond the obvious (the Cancer Prevention Fellowship

Program) include the report on the DCP Program Operations

Staff Seminar held this fall and a spotlight on the Presidential

Management Intern Program.

Although change is natural, our goal for the newsletter

remains unchanged: to continue to publish and distribute a

high-quality newsletter for the Division. I welcome suggestions

on how we can even better achieve this goal. I invite anyone

excited by the prospect of putting his or her ideas into action

to join our team; the broader the interests and expertise of the

team, the more completely we can cover DCP activities. I am

also happy to review pieces from our “emeritus” team members who, like Doug, want to continue to contribute. Thank

you for your continued interest in the PreventionPOST.

1 2 PreventionPOST MARCH 2003

PreventionPOST

Newsletter of the Division of Cancer Prevention

National Cancer Institute

Executive Plaza South, Suite T-41

6120 Executive Boulevard, MSC-7105

Bethesda, Maryland 20892-7105

DCP home base: Executive Plaza