Causes and Prevention Research

In the largest-ever randomized trial testing vitamin D for cancer prevention, the supplement did not lower the risk of developing cancer. The Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL) includes a nationally representative sample of nearly 26,000 participants.

Eight factors may explain more than 80% of the relationship between poverty and disparities in cancer death rates at the county level, according to a new study. The largest mediator was a surprise to the researchers.

Researchers are shifting how they assess diet and cancer risk, looking beyond the impact of individual foods or nutrients on health, and taking a more holistic approach, considering dietary patterns across the lifespan.

Adolescents who use pod-style e-cigarettes had higher levels of nicotine in their bodies than is typically found in adolescents who smoke conventional cigarettes, a new study has found. The study's findings are concerning for several reasons.

Health care providers should emphasize cancer prevention when discussing HPV vaccination with the parents of preteens who are due to receive the vaccine, results from a new study show.

A study of more than 2,600 young adults found that the prevalence of oral infection with four HPV types, including two cancer-causing types, was 88% lower in those who reported receiving at least one dose of an HPV vaccine than in those not vaccinated.

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.

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.