July 31, 2013

Dr. Craig Newschaffer, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Director of the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, coauthored a paper titled "Adipocytokines, Inflammation, and Breast Cancer Risk in Postmenopausal Women: A prospective study," published online ahead of print in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Coauthors on this paper include colleagues from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the George W. Comstock Center for Public Health Research and Prevention in Washington County, MD, Children’s Hospital Boston, and the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The article discusses their nested case-control study of the relationship between three markers altered by obesity: leptin, adiponectin, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (sTNF-R2), an inflammatory marker, with breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. This study informs our understanding of the relationship between obesity, inflammation, and postmenopausal breast cancer, and identifies potential biomarkers.