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The focus
of Dr. Millikan's research is cancer epidemiology, the causes and distribution
of cancer in human populations. Two primary areas
of interest include investigating how genes interact with specific environmental
factors to cause disease, and how disease subtypes defined by molecular
markers may have different etiologies and survival. Dr. Millikan’s
group is particularly interested in malignant melanoma, colon cancer,
and breast cancer. Research projects include the North Carolina
Melanoma Study (part of an international collaboration known as the Gene
Environment and Melanoma study), the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, and
the North Carolina Colon Cancer Study. These studies combine traditional
epidemiologic measures of exposure and family history with molecular
markers aimed at characterizing genetic susceptibility and specific pathways
for somatic genetic alteration. Each of these studies is based
on the premise that traditional epidemiologic studies yield limited information
regarding disease causation. By including information regarding
genetic susceptibility and investigating patterns of acquired cellular
DNA damage in tumors, new insights may be gained into the etiology of
the major cancers (breast, colon, and malignant melanoma). These investigations
also include add-on clinical/translational projects that may provide
information useful for the early detection of cancer, as well as designing
new forms of treatment.
Selected Publications:
Livasy CA, Perou CM, Karaca G, Cowan DW, Maia D, Jackson S, Tse CK, Nyante S, Millikan RC. (2007) Identification of a basal-like subtype of breast ductal carcinoma in situ. Hum Pathol. 38:197-204.
Brennan DJ, Jirstrom K, Kronblad A, Millikan RC, Landberg G, Duffy MJ, Ryden L, Gallagher WM, O'Brien SL. (2006) CA IX is an independent prognostic marker in premenopausal breast cancer patients with one to three positive lymph nodes and a putative marker of radiation resistance. Clin Cancer Res. 12:6421-31.
Carey
L, Perou C, Livasy C, Dressler L, Cowan D, Conway K, Karaca G, Troester
M, Tse C-K, Edmiston S, Deming S, Geradts J, Cheang M, Nielsen T, Moorman
P, Earp H, Millikan R (2006) Race, Breast Cancer Subtypes, and Survival
in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. J Amer Med Assoc 295:2492-2502.
Millikan
R, Hummer A, Begg C, Player J, René de Cotret
A, Winkel S, Mohrenweiser H, Thomas N, Armstrong B, Kricker
A, Marrett L, Gruber S, Anton
Culver H, Zanetti R, Gallagher R, Dwyer T, Rebbeck T, Busam K, From
L, Mujumdar U, Berwick M. (2006) Polymorphisms in
Nucleotide Excision Repair Genes and
Risk of Multiple Primary Melanoma: the Genes Environment and Melanoma
Study. Carcinogenesis 27:610-618.
Pachkowski B, Winkel S, Kubota Y, Swenberg J, Millikan R, Nakamura J.
(2006) XRCC1 genotype and breast cancer: Functional studies
and epidemiologic data demonstrate interactions between XRCC1 codon
280 His and smoking. Cancer Research 66:2876-77.
Lin D, Zeng D, Millikan R. (2005) Maximum likelihood estimation of haplotype
effects and haplotype-environment interactions in association studies. Genetic
Epidemiol 29:299-312.
Canter JA, Kallianpur AR, Parl FF, Millikan RC. (2005) Mitochondrial
DNA G10398A polymorphism and invasive breast cancer in African-American
women. Cancer Res 65:8028-33.
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