title: Proceedings of the third international molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE) meeting.
abstract: Molecular pathological epidemiology (MPE) is a transdisciplinary and relatively new scientific discipline that integrates theory, methods, and resources from epidemiology, pathology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, and computational biology. The underlying objective of MPE research is to better understand the etiology and progression of complex and heterogeneous human diseases with the goal of informing prevention and treatment efforts in population health and clinical medicine. Although MPE research has been commonly applied to investigating breast, lung, and colorectal cancers, its methodology can be used to study most diseases. Recent successes in MPE studies include: (1) the development of new statistical methods to address etiologic heterogeneity; (2) the enhancement of causal inference; (3) the identification of previously unknown exposure-subtype disease associations; and (4) better understanding of the role of lifestyle/behavioral factors on modifying prognosis according to disease subtype. Central challenges to MPE include the relative lack of transdisciplinary experts, educational programs, and forums to discuss issues related to the advancement of the field. To address these challenges, highlight recent successes in the field, and identify new opportunities, a series of MPE meetings have been held at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. Herein, we share the proceedings of the Third International MPE Meeting, held in May 2016 and attended by 150 scientists from 17 countries. Special topics included integration of MPE with immunology and health disparity research. This meeting series will continue to provide an impetus to foster further transdisciplinary integration of divergent scientific fields.
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology Research Program, American Cancer Society, 250 Williams Street NW, Atlanta, GA, 30303, USA. peter.campbell@cancer.org.
authors.forename: Peter T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Rebbeck
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Reiko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nishihara
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Colin B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Begg
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Alexei A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bogdanov
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.|Division of Gastroenterology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology and Health Services Research Group, Centre for Public Health, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
authors.forename: Helen G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Gordon J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Cancer Center, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Yujing J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Heng
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Microbial Systems and Communities, Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program, The Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Curtis
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huttenhower
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Rafael A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Irizarry
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA, USA.
authors.forename: N Sertac
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Kip
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Michor
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nevo
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Peters
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Phipps
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Poole
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Zhi Rong
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Quackenbush
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Harlan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Robins
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Rogan
authors.affiliation: University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Martha L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Slattery
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Smith-Warner
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.|Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Mingyang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Tyler J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: VanderWeele
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Emily C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Zabor
authors.affiliation: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Xuehong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Molin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. Shuji_ogino@dfci.harvard.edu.|Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Shuji_ogino@dfci.harvard.edu.|Division of MPE Molecular Pathological Epidemiology, Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 450 Brookline Ave, Room SM1036, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Shuji_ogino@dfci.harvard.edu.|Department of Oncologic Pathology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Shuji_ogino@dfci.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogino
mesh_terms: D001900:Boston; D004813:Epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms; D057089:Pathology, Molecular
keywords: Meeting report; Molecular pathological epidemiology; Proceedings