Susan Hankinson

Last updated
Susan Hankinson
Alma mater Harvard School of Public Health
University of Maine
University of Minnesota
Scientific career
Institutions University of Massachusetts Amherst
Harvard University
Thesis Environmental determinants of cataract  (1992)
Doctoral students A. Heather Eliassen

Susan Hankinson is an American cancer researcher who is the Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research considers cancer epidemiology and the etiology of breast cancer. Her work has demonstrated the relationship between hormones and breast cancer risk. In 2023, she was awarded the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.

Contents

Early life and education

Hankinson studied nursing at the University of Maine. [1] After earning her bachelor's degree, she moved to the University of Minnesota, where she earned a master's degree in environmental health. In Minnesota, she earned a Masters of Public Health,[ citation needed ] before moving to Harvard University to complete a Doctor of Science. Her doctoral research looked at the environmental determinants of cataracts. [2]

Research and career

Hankinson is an expert in cancer epidemiology and the use of biomarkers in epidemiological studies. [3] She looks to develop more sophisticated prediction models for breast cancer diagnoses that helps women better understand their risk. [4] She created a breast cancer biomarker discovery program that demonstrated the association between hormones, lifestyle factors, and cancer risk. [2] [5] Her research demonstrated that women who used hormone replacement therapy were more likely to suffer from breast cancer than women who did not, and that the risk was highest amongst women who used a progestin–oestrogen combination therapy. [6] The increased risk associated with hormone replacement therapy depended on body mass index; women with a body mass index below 25 were most at risk. [6] [7]

From 2006 to 2010, Hankinson was Principal Investigator of the Nurses' Health Study, [3] where, in a trial of over 200,000 people, she investigated how lifestyle (dietary intake, obesity) and hormones impact cancer risk. [8] Her research showed that people who work night shifts experience a greater cancer risk. [9] She joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2011. [4]

Hankinson has also studied the relationship between chronic stress and heart disease. [10] To do this, she studied metabolites in blood samples using mass spectrometry.

Hankinson received the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research award, [11] and was named by research.com as the 28th most highly cited women scientist in the world by research in 2022. [12] In 2023, she was awarded the American Association for Cancer Research award for Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention. [13] [14] [15]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progestogen (medication)</span> Medication producing effects similar to progesterone

A progestogen, also referred to as a progestagen, gestagen, or gestogen, is a type of medication which produces effects similar to those of the natural female sex hormone progesterone in the body. A progestin is a synthetic progestogen. Progestogens are used most commonly in hormonal birth control and menopausal hormone therapy. They can also be used in the treatment of gynecological conditions, to support fertility and pregnancy, to lower sex hormone levels for various purposes, and for other indications. Progestogens are used alone or in combination with estrogens. They are available in a wide variety of formulations and for use by many different routes of administration. Examples of progestogens include natural or bioidentical progesterone as well as progestins such as medroxyprogesterone acetate and norethisterone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's Health Initiative</span> Long-term U.S. health study

The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was a series of clinical studies initiated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1991, to address major health issues causing morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women. It consisted of three clinical trials (CT) and an observational study (OS). In particular, randomized controlled trials were designed and funded that addressed cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.

Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), also known as bioidentical hormone therapy (BHT) or natural hormone therapy, is the use of hormones that are identical on a molecular level with endogenous hormones in hormone replacement therapy. It may also be combined with blood and saliva testing of hormone levels, and the use of pharmacy compounding to obtain hormones in an effort to reach a targeted level of hormones in the body. A number of claims by some proponents of BHT have not been confirmed through scientific testing. Specific hormones used in BHT include estrone, estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and estriol.

The Nurses' Health Study is a series of prospective studies that examine epidemiology and the long-term effects of nutrition, hormones, environment, and nurses' work-life on health and disease development. The studies have been among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases ever conducted. The Nurses' Health Studies have led to many insights on health and well-being, including cancer prevention, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. They have included clinicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and several Harvard-affiliated hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Children's Hospital Boston, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Risk factors for breast cancer may be divided into preventable and non-preventable. Their study belongs in the field of epidemiology. Breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, can result from multiple environmental and hereditary risk factors. The term "environmental", as used by cancer researchers, means any risk factor that is not genetically inherited.

Dame Valerie Beral AC DBE FRS FRCOG FMedSci was an Australian-born British epidemiologist, academic and a preeminent specialist in breast cancer epidemiology. She was Professor of Epidemiology, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford and was the Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and Cancer Research UK from 1989.

The Million Women Study is a study of women’s health analysing data from more than one million women aged 50 and over, led by Dame Valerie Beral and a team of researchers at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. It is a collaborative project between Cancer Research UK and the National Health Service (NHS), with additional funding from the Medical Research Council (UK).

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause. These symptoms can include hot flashes, vaginal atrophy, accelerated skin aging, vaginal dryness, decreased muscle mass, sexual dysfunction, and bone loss or osteoporosis. They are in large part related to the diminished levels of sex hormones that occur during menopause.

Graham Andrew Colditz MD, DrPH is an Australian chronic disease epidemiologist. He is the inaugural Niess-Gain Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, where he is associate director for Prevention and Control at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center. He directs the Master of Population Health Science at Washington University School of Medicine. During medical training he was excited by the potential for prevention of chronic diseases. With encouragement from mentors he pursued training in the US as it was routine for academics in Australia to obtain overseas training at that time. He is internationally recognized for leadership in cancer prevention, and is often interviewed by media for input on this topic. With members of Cancer Prevention and Control at Siteman, he blogs on issues relating to cancer prevention and screening. According to Google Scholar statistics, Colditz has a h-index of more than 300.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Love</span> American surgeon (1948–2023)

Susan Margaret Love was an American surgeon, a prominent advocate of preventive breast cancer research, and author. She was regarded as one of the most respected women's health specialists in the United States. Love is best known for pioneering work fueled by her criticism of the medical establishment's paternalistic treatment of women. She was an early advocate of cancer surgery that conserves as much breast tissue as possible. She also was among the first to sound the alarm on the risks of routine hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal women.

Eugenia E. “Jeanne” Calle (1952–2009) was an American cancer epidemiologist.

Kathleen I. Pritchard, is the head of oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada, specializing in breast cancer therapies, and leading the clinical trials division of the centre. She has authored numerous studies on women's health, breast cancer, hormone replacement therapy, public health, and research methodology. According to Thomson Reuters, Pritchard was one of the most cited researchers in the world in 2014 and 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estrogen (medication)</span> Type of medication

An estrogen (E) is a type of medication which is used most commonly in hormonal birth control and menopausal hormone therapy, and as part of feminizing hormone therapy for transgender women. They can also be used in the treatment of hormone-sensitive cancers like breast cancer and prostate cancer and for various other indications. Estrogens are used alone or in combination with progestogens. They are available in a wide variety of formulations and for use by many different routes of administration. Examples of estrogens include bioidentical estradiol, natural conjugated estrogens, synthetic steroidal estrogens like ethinylestradiol, and synthetic nonsteroidal estrogens like diethylstilbestrol. Estrogens are one of three types of sex hormone agonists, the others being androgens/anabolic steroids like testosterone and progestogens like progesterone.

Utthara Nayar is a cancer researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her work focuses specifically on breast cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucile Adams-Campbell</span> American epidemiologist

Lucile L. Adams-Campbell is the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in epidemiology in the United States. She serves as the Professor of Oncology at Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate director for Minority Health at the Georgetown University Medical Center. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine and the Washington DC Hall of Fame.

The timing hypothesis, gap hypothesis, gap theory, or critical window hypothesisfor menopausal hormone therapy is a scientific theory that the benefits and risks of menopausal hormone therapy vary depending on the amount of time a woman has been in menopause upon initiation of treatment. More specifically, it is thought that hormone therapy may be protective against coronary heart disease in women who initiate it in early menopause but may be harmful in women who start it in late menopause. The timing hypothesis may also extend to risks of breast cancer and dementia with hormone therapy. It is thought that the increase in breast cancer risk may be greater in women who start hormone therapy in early menopause but may be lower or that even decreased risk of breast cancer may occur in women who start in late menopause. The influence of hormone therapy on depressive symptoms may additionally be influenced by menopausal stage, with significant benefit seen in perimenopausal women but not in postmenopausal women. The timing hypothesis is potentially able to resolve conflicting findings between large observational studies and randomized controlled trials on long-term health outcomes with menopausal hormone therapy.

Stacey Ann Missmer is an American reproductive biologist who is a professor at Michigan State University. She was the first faculty member to be appointed under the Michigan State University Global Health Initiative. Her research considers physical and environmental risk factors for endometriosis and infertility.

A. Heather Eliassen is an American public health researcher who is a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research considers the epidemiology of breast cancer and the identification of modifiable risk factors to reduce breast cancer risk.

Marcia L. Stefanick is a Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Women's Health and Sex Differences in Medicine Center. Stefanick’s research investigates the role of lifestyle, particularly exercise, diet, weight control, and menopausal hormone therapy, on chronic disease prevention. Her major focus is heart disease, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and dementia.

References

  1. ↑ "Susan Hankinson to Lead Working Group of the American Association for Cancer Research". Women In Academia Report. 2014-12-19. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  2. 1 2 "Susan Hankinson : Models to Medicine Center : UMass Amherst". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  3. 1 2 "Susan Hankinson, RN, ScD | Nurses' Health Study". nurseshealthstudy.org. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  4. 1 2 "Target: Breast Cancer". issuu. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  5. ↑ "Hankinson Susan". UMass Chan Medical School. 2020-10-16. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  6. 1 2 "New findings further clarify breast cancer risk with hormone therapy". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  7. ↑ SPHHS Dean's Seminar with Dr Susan Hankinson , retrieved 2023-03-18
  8. ↑ "Susan Hankinson – Society for Epidemiologic Research". 21 March 2015. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  9. ↑ "Rotating night shift work can be hazardous to your health". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  10. ↑ "Research Aims to Expand Understanding of Link Between Chronic Stress and Heart Disease, Among Other Age-related Conditions : UMass Amherst". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  11. ↑ "Susan E. Hankinson, ScD, MPH, Receives AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research Award". ascopost.com. December 25, 2020. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  12. ↑ "Susan Hankinson Named No. 28 Female Scientist in the World by Research.com : UMass Amherst". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  13. ↑ "Susan E. Hankinson, ScD". American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  14. ↑ "Susan Hankinson of the University of Massachusetts Honored for Her Work in Breast Cancer Research". Women In Academia Report. 2022-04-28. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
  15. ↑ "Hankinson honored for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology". UMass System. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 2023-03-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.