Elisa V. Bandera, M.D., Ph.D.

I am an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UMDNJ’s Cancer Institute of New Jersey (http://www.cinj.org/), Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the School of Public Health and a member of the graduate faculty at Rutgers University’s Department of Nutritional Sciences. I am an epidemiologist, with a major interest in the prevention of cancer by dietary means. I have conducted and published several studies of the relationship of diet and alcohol consumption and cancer. I am currently the recipient of a National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention, Control, and Population Sciences Career Development Award, which includes support for a case-control study examining the effect of diet (focusing on the role of phytoestrogens and alcohol) on endometrial cancer risk. In this study, which is a collaboration with cancer epidemiologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, we are also evaluating the role of estrogens and polymorphisms in genes involved in estrogen metabolism. I am also serving as PI in a case-control study evaluating the role of diet and DNA repair on ovarian cancer risk. Cases and controls in both studies are New Jersey residents. I am also conducting a pilot study examining factors affecting the onset of puberty in girls and working with epidemiologists at the American Cancer Society in the CPS II Cohort Study evaluating the role of diet and body mass on endometrial cancer risk.

In addition to my epidemiologic studies, I have a strong interest in translating research findings into public health action. I am actively involved in cancer prevention and control efforts in New Jersey by being a member of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program and vice chair of the Cancer Prevention and Control Advisory Group of the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research. Working with the Office of Cancer Prevention and Control of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, I am also chairing the NJ Nutrition and Physical Activity Workgroup of the New Jersey Task Force on Cancer Prevention, Early Detection, and Treatment. Recently, I have been involved in the World Cancer Research Fund International/American Institute for Cancer Research’s Second Report on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Cancer Prevention, which aims to provide a comprehensive review of the epidemiologic literature relating dietary factors and cancer and issue dietary guidelines for cancer prevention (www.wcrf.org).  I was also involved in the 2006 revision of the American Cancer Society’s Dietary Guidelines for Cancer Prevention.  I have served on several grant review panels and currently I am a member of the National Cancer Institute Initial Review Group Subcommittee J for Population and Patient-Oriented Training and the American Institute for Cancer Research Grant Review Panel I. 

http://myprofile.cos.com/evbandera

Selected Publications

Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Gifkins DM, Moore DF, McCullough M. (2007) The association between food, nutrition, and physical activity and the risk of endometrial cancer and underlying mechanisms. In: Second Report on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer., World Cancer Research Fund International/American Institute for Cancer Research

Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Moore DF, Gifkins DM, McCullough ML. (2007) Fruits and vegetables and endometrial cancer risk: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis, Nutrition and Cancer, In Press

Bandera EV (2007) Nutritional factors in ovarian cancer prevention: what have we learned in the past five years?, Nutrition and Cancer, In Press

McCullough ML, Bandera EV, Patel R, Patel AV, Gansler T, Thun M, Calle EE (2007) A prospective study of fruits, vegetables and risk of endometrial cancer, American Journal of Epidemiology, In Press

Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Moore DF, Gifkins DM, McCullough ML (2007) Dietary lipids and endometrial cancer risk: the current epidemiologic evidence, Cancer Causes and Control, In Press

Kushi LH, Byers T, Doyle C, Bandera EV, McCullough M, Gansler T, Andrews KS, Thun MJ and the American Cancer Society 2006 Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee (2006) American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention: Reducing the Risk of Cancer With Healthy Food Choices and Physical Activity, CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 56, 254-281

Olson SH, Bandera EV, Orlow I. (2007) Genetic Variants, Sex Steroid Hormone Levels, and Endometrial Cancer: A HuGE Review, American Journal of Epidemiology, 165, 235-245

Freudenheim JL, Ritz J, Smith-Warner SA, Albanes D, Bandera EV, van den Brandt PA, Colditz G, Feskanich D, Goldbohm RA, Harnack L, Miller AB, Rimm E, Rohan TE, Sellers TA, Virtamo J, Willett WC, Hunter DJ (2005) Alcohol consumption and risk of lung cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 82 (3), 657-67

Bandera EV, Kushi LH (2006) Alcohol and cancer In D Heber, GL Blackburn, VLW Go, J Milner (eds), Nutritional Oncology, Second Edition, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (bookchapter)

Freudenheim JL, Ram M, Nie J, Muti P, Trevisan M, Shields PG, Bandera EV, Campbell LA, McCann SE, Schunemann HJ, Carosella AM, Vito D, Russell M, Nochajski TH, Goldman R (November 2003) Lung cancer in humans is not associated with lifetime total alcohol consumption or with genetic variation in alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3), The Journal of Nutrition, 133 (11), 3619-24

Bandera EV, Potter JD (March 2003) Re: 'Dose specific meta-analysis and sensitivity analysis of the relation between alcohol consumption and lung cancer risk', American Journal of Epidemiology, 157 (6), 569-70

Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Phytoestrogens in the prevention and prognosis of female hormonal cancers, Annual Reviews in Food and Nutrition Toxicity, 1, 63-87, 2003

Bandera EV, Kushi LH, Olson SH, Chen WY, Muti P, Alcohol consumption and endometrial cancer: some unresolved issues, Nutrition and Cancer, 45(1), 24-9, 2003

Bandera EV, Freudenheim JL, Marshall JR, Priore RL, Brasure J, Baptiste M, Graham S, Impact of losses to follow-up on diet/alcohol and lung cancer analyses in the New York State Cohort, Nutrition and Cancer, 42(1), 41-7, 2002

Kushi LH, Cunningham JE, Hebert JR, Lerman RH, Bandera EV, Teas J (November 2001) The macrobiotic diet in cancer, Journal of Nutrition, 131 (11 Suppl), 3056S-64S

Bandera EV, RE: Diet and lung cancer mortality: A 1987 National Health Interview Survey cohort study (letter), Cancer Causes and Control, 12, 577, August 2001

Bandera EV, Freudenheim JL, Vena JE, Alcohol consumption and lung cancer: a review of the epidemiologic evidence, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 10(8), 813-21, Aug 2001

Bandera EV, Freudenheim JL, Marshall JR, Zielezny M, Priore RL, Brasure J, Baptiste M, Graham S, Diet and alcohol consumption and lung cancer risk in the New York State Cohort (United States), Cancer Causes and Control, 8(6), 828-40, November 1997

Freudenheim JL, Marshall JR, Graham S, Laughlin R, Vena JE, Bandera E, Muti P, Swanson M, Nemoto T, Exposure to breastmilk in infancy and the risk of breast cancer, Epidemiology, 5(3), 324-31, May 1994

Bandera EV, Freudenheim JL, Graham S, Marshall JR, Haughey BP, Swanson M, Brasure J, Wilkinson G, Alcohol consumption and lung cancer in white males, Cancer Causes and Control, 3(4), 361-9, July 1992