Anna Wu, PhD

Professor Emerita

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Overview

Dr. Wu’s research focuses on the epidemiology of cancer with emphasis on understanding the increase of various (e.g., breast, ovarian, colon) cancers among Asian migrants to the US. A unifying theme of my research is to identify modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors to reduce the risk of specific cancers and to improve outcomes among those diagnosed with cancer. In addition to observational epidemiologic studies, I have conducted a series of controlled intervention studies to investigate the short-term effects of dietary (e.g., soy, green tea) and hormonal (e.g., oral contraceptives) agents on breast-tissue (e.g., mammographic density) and circulating sex hormones and other biomarkers.
Since 2014, I began to use the well-established Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) to address research questions on environmental exposures (e.g., air pollution, endocrine disrupting chemicals) that have been challenging to study. In addition, I am participating in two multicenter survivorship studies on breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Education and Training

  • University of California, Los Angeles — PhD — 1983 — Epidemiology

Publications

  • Use of common analgesic medications and ovarian cancer survival: results from a pooled analysis in the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. Br J Cancer. 2017 Apr 25; 116(9):1223-1228.. View in PubMed
  • Identification of 12 new susceptibility loci for different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer. Nat Genet. 2017 May; 49(5):680-691.. View in PubMed
  • BRCA2 Hypomorphic Missense Variants Confer Moderate Risks of Breast Cancer. Cancer Res. 2017 06 01; 77(11):2789-2799.. View in PubMed
  • Cigarette smoking is associated with adverse survival among women with ovarian cancer: Results from a pooled analysis of 19 studies. Int J Cancer. 2017 06 01; 140(11):2422-2435.. View in PubMed
  • Enrichment of putative PAX8 target genes at serous epithelial ovarian cancer susceptibility loci. Br J Cancer. 2017 Feb 14; 116(4):524-535.. View in PubMed
  • Prediction of breast cancer risk based on common genetic variants in women of East Asian ancestry. Breast Cancer Res. 2016 12 08; 18(1):124.. View in PubMed
  • Stomach Cancer Disparity among Korean Americans by Tumor Characteristics: Comparison with Non-Hispanic Whites, Japanese Americans, South Koreans, and Japanese. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2017 04; 26(4):587-596.. View in PubMed
  • rs2735383, located at a microRNA binding site in the 3’UTR of NBS1, is not associated with breast cancer risk. Sci Rep. 2016 11 15; 6:36874.. View in PubMed
  • Inherited variants affecting RNA editing may contribute to ovarian cancer susceptibility: results from a large-scale collaboration. Oncotarget. 2016 11 08; 7(45):72381-72394.. View in PubMed
  • Effects of green tea catechin extract on serum lipids in postmenopausal women: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 12; 104(6):1671-1682.. View in PubMed