Co-Leaders
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James Herman
Program: Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
Pittsburgh PA
Research Interests and Keywords
- Biomarkers,cancer prognosis,DNA Methylation,early detection,Epigenetics,Lung Cancer,Transcription Factors,tumor suppressor genes

Jian-Min Yuan
Program: Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention
5150 Centre Avenue - Suite 4C Office 470
Pittsburgh PA
Summary
Dr. Yuan is a cancer epidemiologist with extensive experience in research on cancer etiology and prevention. Dr. Yuan is Principal Investigator of the Shanghai Cohort Study and the Singapore Chinese Health Study, two population-based prospective cohorts of more than 80,000 Chinese men and women with available baseline blood and urine samples with more than 25 years of active follow-up for cancer and other major health outcomes.
Utilizing these two large cohort resources coupled with a biomarker approach, Dr. Yuan and his research team have made several noteworthy contributions to the field of cancer epidemiology including (1) dietary aflatoxins as human hepatocarcinogens, (2) dietary isothiocyanates, a group of phytochemicals found in cruciferous vegetables, as potential chemopreventive agents against lung cancer development, and (3) urinary biomarkers of nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as risk predictors for lung cancer in smokers.
Dr. Yuan also has extensive experience in designing and conducting randomized, double-blind intervention studies on cancer prevention. Dr. Yuan is leading the effort to conduct a randomized, double-blind phase II clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary 2-phenethyl isothiocyanates (PEITC) supplementation on reduction of risk markers for lung cancer in smokers. In addition, Dr. Yuan, collaborating with Dr. Mindy Kurzer, his former colleague at the University of Minnesota, is conducting a randomized, double-blind phase II clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of oral supplementation of green tea extracts (Polyphenon E) on reduction of risk markers for breast cancer in women.
Research Interests and Keywords
- cancer biomarkers,cancer epidemiology,Cancer prevention,cancer risk prediction,Clinical Trials,dietary chemopreventive agents,Gene-environment interaction in cancer etiology