AACR Establishes New Cancer Prevention Working Group

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) today announced the formation of its eighth and newest scientific working group. This working group will specifically be dedicated to supporting cancer prevention research.  

The mission of the AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group (CPWG) is to establish cancer prevention as a global priority through innovative science, integration of the latest technologies, improved levels of funding, and delivery of effective public education and awareness strategies.  

The AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group will provide a forum for communication and collaboration among basic, translational, and clinical scientists; physicians, nurses, and other health care providers; and cancer prevention experts in academia, industry, and government. The members of the working group will work together to facilitate basic, translational, and clinical trans-disciplinary research aimed at promoting the understanding of cancer prevention science. Membership in the AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group is free and open to all members of the AACR interested in cancer prevention and related scientific disciplines.  

The AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group will strive to accomplish its mission by: 

• fostering transdisciplinary approaches to the study of cancer prevention; 
• promoting the incorporation of molecular and biochemical concepts and techniques as well as novel data science tools into well-designed cancer prevention studies; 
• providing an ongoing forum for the scholarly discussion and development of effective approaches to the conduct and interpretation of cancer prevention studies; 
• fostering collaborations with individuals and with relevant AACR scientific working groups engaged in other scientific disciplines; 
• recommending scientific and educational programs that will serve to advance the field; 
• assisting with the professional advancement of early- and mid-career investigators engaged in cancer prevention research; and 
• establishing a community of cancer prevention experts and additional individuals interested in advancing progress in cancer prevention. 

“Following the inception of the AACR’s Molecular Epidemiology Working Group in 1999, the number of our scientific working groups has continued to expand to meet the needs of the cancer research community. We are now proud to announce this working group dedicated to the vital area of cancer prevention research,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “The field of cancer prevention has been an area richly supported by the AACR since the organization’s founding in 1907, with the leadership of several AACR Past Presidents. This new working group will ensure that the AACR remains at the leading edge of scientific advancements in cancer prevention, early detection, and interception.”  

The members of the AACR Cancer Prevention Working Group Steering Committee are:  

Adriana Albini, PhD (Chair) 
Head, Vascular Biology and Angiogenesis Laboratory, IRCCS MultiMedica Milano; Director, MultiMedica Onlus Foundation; Professor of General Pathology, University Milano Bicocca, Milan, Italy 

Melissa L. Bondy, PhD 
Inaugural Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health; Associate Director for Population Sciences, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, CA 

Philip E. Castle, PhD, MPH 
Director, NCI Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 

Andrea De Censi, MD 
Director, Department of Medical Oncology, E.O. Ospedali Galliera, Genova, Italy 

Zigang Dong, MD, DrPH
Professor, School of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China

G. Paolo Dotto, MD, PhD 
Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Lausanne, Switzerland 

Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR 
Dean, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 

Stephen S. Hecht, PhD 
Wallin Professor of Cancer Prevention, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN 

Lee W. Jones, PhD 
Professor, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 

Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, PhD 
Professor of Psychiatry; Chair, Human Investigations Committee, Human Research Protections Program, Yale School of Medicine, Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT 

Stephen Lam, MD 
Professor of Medicine and Chair, Lung Tumor Group, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 

J. Jack Lee, PhD 
Associate Vice President and Professor of Quantitative Sciences, Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 

Christopher I. Li, MD, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences Division; Faculty Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA

Karen T. Liby, PhD 
Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 

William G. Nelson, MD, PhD 
Director, Johns Hopkins University Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD 

Klaus Pantel, MD, PhD 
Director, Institute of Tumor Biology, University Medical Center, Hamburg, Germany 

Michael N. Pollak, MD 
Professor, Medicine and Oncology, McGill University and Segal Cancer Centre, Montreal, Québec, Canada 

Timothy R. Rebbeck, PhD 
Vincent L. Gregory Jr. Professor of Cancer Prevention; Director, Zhu Family Center for Global Cancer Prevention, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 

Leslie L. Robison, PhD 
Chair, Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 

Anil K. Rustgi, MD 
Director, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University, New York, NY 

Victoria L. Seewaldt, MD 
Ruth Ziegler Chair in Population Sciences, City of Hope, Duarte, CA 

Melissa A. Simon, MD 
George H. Gardner, MD, Professor of Clinical Gynecology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 

Avrum Spira, MD, MSc 
Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Laboratory Medicine, and Bioinformatics; Alexander Graham Bell Professor of Healthcare Entrepreneurship; Chief, Division of Computational Biomedicine, Boston University School of Medicine; Director, Translational Bioinformatics Program, Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Director, J&J Innovation Lung Cancer Center at Boston University, Boston, MA 

Mariana Carla Stern, PhD 
Professor of Preventive Medicine and Urology, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA 

Eva Szabo, MD 
Chief, Lung and Upper Aerodigestion Cancer Research Group, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 

Kenneth Kenji Tanabe, MD 
Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology; Director, MGH Liver Surgery Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 

Cornelia M. Ulrich, MS, PhD 
Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Presidential Professor in Cancer Research; Executive Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute; Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City, UT 

Kala Visvanathan, MD 
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD