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Challenges and opportunities in research on early-life events/exposures and cancer development later in life

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Abstract

It is becoming increasingly evident that early-life events and exposures have important consequences for cancer development later in life. However, epidemiological studies of early-life factors and cancer development later in life have had significant methodological challenges such as the long latency period, the distinctiveness of each cancer, and large number of subjects that must be studied, all likely to increase costs. These traditional hurdles might be mitigated by leveraging several existing large-scale prospective studies in the United States (US) and globally, as well as birth databases and birth cohorts, in order to launch both association and mechanistic studies of early-life exposures and cancer development later in life. Dedicated research funding will be needed to advance this paradigm shift in cancer research, and it seems justified by its potential to produce transformative understanding of how cancer develops over the life-course. This in turn has the potential to transform cancer prevention strategies through interventions in early-life rather than later in life, as is the current practice, where it is perhaps less effective.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Modifiable Risk Factors Branch, Epidemiology and Genetics Research Program, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), National Cancer Institute (NCI), 6130 Executive Blvd., Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Somdat Mahabir

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Kjersti Aagaard

  3. Laboratory of Comparative Carcinogenesis, NCI, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Lucy M. Anderson

  4. Epigenetics Group, International Agency for Cancer Research, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Zdenko Herceg

  5. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Robert A. Hiatt

  6. Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), NCI, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Robert N. Hoover & Rebecca Troisi

  7. Radiation Epidemiology Branch, DCEG, NCI, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Martha S. Linet

  8. Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Daniel Medina

  9. Applied Research Program, DCCPS, NCI, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Nancy Potischman

  10. Department of Etiological Cancer Research, The Cancer Registry of Norway, Montebello, Norway

    Steinar Tretli

  11. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Dimitrios Trichopoulos

Authors
  1. Somdat Mahabir
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  2. Kjersti Aagaard
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  3. Lucy M. Anderson
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  4. Zdenko Herceg
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  5. Robert A. Hiatt
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  6. Robert N. Hoover
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  7. Martha S. Linet
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  8. Daniel Medina
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  9. Nancy Potischman
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  10. Steinar Tretli
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  11. Dimitrios Trichopoulos
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  12. Rebecca Troisi
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Correspondence to Somdat Mahabir.

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Mahabir, S., Aagaard, K., Anderson, L.M. et al. Challenges and opportunities in research on early-life events/exposures and cancer development later in life. Cancer Causes Control 23, 983–990 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9962-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-9962-5

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