My research involves studying intermediate markers and precursors of cancer that will translate to prevention and early detection efforts. In breast cancer, our group is studying the intermediate marker, mammographic density, which is the proportion of dense tissue on a mammogram. High levels of mammographic density have been seen to be associated with 3-5 fold increases in breast cancer risk. Mammographic density also appears to be on the causal pathway between several risk factors and breast cancer. Our team is performing several investigations of this marker including its association with exogenous and endogenous hormones, early life and adolescent factors, and aromatase inhibitor therapies as well as researching how density changes over a woman?s lifetime. We are also studying the genetic epidemiology of mammographic density through linkage analyses and association studies. Additionally, we are working to identify other markers on the mammogram image that might be important in breast cancer risk. We will investigate many of these study questions in a large mammography cohort of 25,000 women that our team is currently establishing at the Mayo Clinic (http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/mammohealthstudy/).

Another large research effort by our team involves studying whether monoclonal gammopothy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a potential precursor to myeloma, clusters in families of patients diagnosed with MGUS or myeloma.