Causes and Prevention Research

Even as a federal advisory panel has supported the use of aspirin to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in some people, researchers are investigating how aspirin works against cancer and whether it may help reduce the risk of other cancers.

A study of nationwide mortality data found that, while cancer deaths in the U.S. dropped between 1980 and 2014, disparities persisted, and in 160 counties cancer mortality rose substantially.

The consumption of cigarettes, small cigars, and chewing tobacco has declined over the past 15 years, according to a new study. These declines were partially offset by a rise in consumption of large cigars, pipe tobacco, and snuff.

People who consistently smoked an average of less than one cigarette per day over their lifetimes had a 64 percent higher risk of earlier death than people who never smoked.

Updated CDC recommendations advise those younger than age 15 need only two doses of the HPV vaccine instead of three.

The findings from a recent study suggest that adolescents are not just using e-cigarettes as a substitute for conventional cigarettes but that e-cigarettes are attracting new users to tobacco products.

A new report from an NCI working group lays out recommended priorities to help shape the institute’s future tobacco control research portfolio.

A new study of the relationship between physical activity and cancer has shown that greater levels of leisure-time physical activity were associated with a lower risk of developing 13 different types of cancer; the risk of developing seven cancer types was 20 percent lower among the most active participants as compared with the least active participants.

NCI’s Dr. Robert Croyle discusses the Food and Drug Administration’s release of a rule that extends its regulatory authority over tobacco products to include cigars, e-cigarettes, hookah (waterpipe) tobacco.

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) types targeted by the quadrivalent HPV vaccine has declined by nearly two-thirds among teenage girls since HPV vaccination was recommended in the United States.

A missing hormone in obese mice may help explain a longstanding association between obesity and an increased risk of colorectal cancer in humans.

Metastatic tumor cells are particularly sensitive to oxidative stress, and antioxidant supplementation increases their ability to grow and metastasize.

A technique for gene editing known as CRISPR-Cas9 has made it much easier and faster for cancer researchers to study mutations and test new therapeutic targets.

According to a new study, smoking may be responsible for far more deaths each year than previously thought.

In a large randomized clinical trial, a new human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine effectively prevented infection and disease caused by nine HPV types, including seven types that cause cervical and other cancers—five of which were not covered by the previously available HPV vaccines—and two types that cause genital warts.

Second-hand smoke exposure has fallen by 50 percent since 1999, a new study finds, but millions are still routinely exposed to secondhand smoke.

In 2010, an estimated 7,760 new cancers were diagnosed among the nearly 900,000 Americans known to be living with HIV infection. According to the first comprehensive study in the United States, approximately half of these cancers were in excess of what would be expected if HIV-infected people had the same cancer risk as the general population.

The first report of its kind finds that more than 300 million people worldwide use smokeless tobacco products and that they are linked to a number of cancers.

The first-ever report on the global use and public health impact of smokeless tobacco finds that more than 300 million people in at least 70 countries use these harmful products. The report is titled Smokeless Tobacco and Public Health: A Global Perspective.

Since they first began to be sold in North America in the mid-2000s, electronic cigarettes have been the subject of intense debate. NCI's Dr. Michele Bloch recently presented an update on some of the issues surrounding e-cigarettes.

NCI’s Dr. Doug Lowy discusses HPV vaccines, including their efficacy, safety, and the development of next-generation vaccines.

NCI scientists have studied cells of patients with an extremely rare genetic disease that is characterized by drastic premature aging and discovered a new protective cellular mechanism against cancer. They found that cells from patients with Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS), who typically do not develop cancer, contain a tumor protection mechanism that is mediated by BRD4.

Extremely obese people have increased risks of dying from cancer and many other causes including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and kidney and liver diseases, according to results of an analysis of data pooled from 20 large studies of people from three countries.

NCI scientists report that two doses of a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, trademarked as Cervarix, resulted in similar serum antibody levels against two of the most carcinogenic types of HPV (16 and 18), compared to a standard three dose regimen.

Scientists report that newly acquired oral HPV infections in healthy men are uncommon and, when present, tend to go away within one year.

NCI scientists have developed a new paradigm to assess hereditary risk prediction in common diseases, such as prostate cancer. This genetic risk prediction concept is based on polygenic analysis—the study of a group of common DNA sequences, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), each of which contributes a very small amount to overall disease risk, but has a strong effect when grouped together.

Research by scientists at the NCI has identified a new class of DNA sites in cells that break early in the replication process. They found that these break sites correlate with damage often seen in B cell cancers, such as diffuse large B cell lymphoma.

Leisure-time physical activity is associated with longer life expectancy, even at relatively low levels of activity and regardless of body weight, according to a study by a team of researchers led by the NCI. The study, which found that people who engaged in leisure-time physical activity had life expectancy gains of as much as 4.5 years, appeared Nov. 6, 2012, in PLoS Medicine.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection contributes substantially to the epidemic of anal cancer in men, but not women in the United States, according to new research from NCI. Chart shows overall incidence rates of anal cancers in general population with dashed line showing those with HIV infection.

Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, answers questions about how views on diet and cancer risk have evolved.

Children and young adults scanned multiple times by computed tomography (CT), a commonly used diagnostic tool, have a small increased risk of leukemia and brain tumors in the decade following their first scan.

Death rates from all cancers combined for men, women, and children continued to decline in the United States between 2004 and 2008, according to the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2008. The overall rate of new cancer diagnoses, also known as incidence, among men decreased by an average of 0.6 percent per year between 2004 and 2008. Overall cancer incidence rates among women declined 0.5 percent per year from 1998 through 2006 with rates leveling off from 2006 through 2008.

A new set of 11 global health studies calls attention to the burden of tobacco-related inequalities in low- and middle-income countries and finds that socioeconomic inequalities are associated with increased tobacco use, second-hand smoke exposure and tobacco-related cancer and diseases among disadvantaged populations in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The vaccine Cervarix® was 90 percent effective against two types of human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause cervical cancer, according to the June 30, 2007, Lancet.

What biological processes mediate the relationship between excess body fat and increased cancer risk? Researchers are examining how hormones, inflammation, signaling molecules, and other biological factors may play a role in cancer progression.

Evidence suggests that some adolescent and young adult cancers may have unique genetic and biological features. Researchers are trying to better understand the biology of these cancers in order to identify potential therapeutic targets.

Dr. Martha Linet, chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch in NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, answers questions about ongoing research to study mobile phone use and cancer risk.

The human papillomaviruses responsible for virtually all cases of cervical cancer have characteristics that make the viruses particularly amenable to vaccine development. This article describes the research that went into developing two vaccines that have been approved by the FDA.

Exposure to radiation from medical imaging in the United States has increased dramatically. NCI and several partner organizations sponsored a 2011 summit to promote efforts to reduce radiation exposure from medical imaging.