Alumni Spotlight: Meet Iona Cheng, PhD, MPH, building the evidence base in cancer research for Asian Americans

Iona Cheng, PhD, MPH, is co-leading a new study to uncover the causes of cancer in Asian Americans. Through a $12.45 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, she hopes to uncover the burden of cancer in this understudied group. Cheng received her PhD in epidemiology from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 2005. Today, the cancer and genetic epidemiologist holds several positions including Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Division, and Co-Investigator of the SEER Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry. “I am grateful for the training I received at USC because I learned to be curious and was taught rigorous applied epidemiologic skills that I apply to new research questions throughout my academic career,” shares Cheng.

What inspired you to pursue a career in epidemiology?

While today there is more awareness and opportunities for people to understand what epidemiology is, when I was in college there really wasn’t. After I completed my undergraduate studies, I stumbled on a course in epidemiology and enjoyed it. I gravitated towards the concept of public health and was drawn to understanding the causes of diseases at the population level versus focusing on a specific individual. I really appreciated how far-reaching epidemiology could be in terms of trying to understand health in the public at large.

Can you share with us more about your academic journey?

I received my bachelor’s degree in physiology from the University of California, Davis. After I graduated, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for five years. I attended Yale University and received my Master of Public Health degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology. It was during this time I decided to pursue a PhD degree. I wanted to study cancer epidemiology and understand differences across racial and ethnic populations. While sharing my interests with my advisor, she recommended looking beyond public health schools and advised me to look up the faculty at USC in the Department of Population and Public Health Science (formerly Preventive Medicine), and she was absolutely right! There was amazing research being done and several faculty had similar overlapping interests to mine. I was grateful for the recommendation because the department was not on my radar as my focus was on public health schools.

What sparked your interest in cancer research?

There’s such a personal story that people experience with cancer, and unfortunately it affects so many people. My underlying focus has always been trying to understand why a specific racial and ethnic population has a higher burden of cancer than others. I started out researching the high burden of prostate cancer in African America men. Then my interest expanded to breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.

My training at USC encouraged me to be curious and while I was formally trained in genetic epidemiology, my interests have expanded to different exposures. Today, I investigate geospatial exposures regarding neighborhood environments and environmental pollutants. I am also incorporating molecular elements to my research questions.

What was the most impactful aspect of your educational experience at USC?

I was really fortunate to have been trained by [the late] Dr. Brian Henderson and Dr. Malcolm Pike, and Dr. Anna Wu and Dr. Daniel Stram were a part of my dissertation committee. One highlight of my studies was learning about various epidemiological study designs while working with data from the Multiethnic Cohort Study—an amazing epidemiological resource. The study is based at several universities, which provided me with the opportunity to develop collaborations with other investigators, work in a large team, expand my network, and prepare me for the work I do today. As a result of my involvement, I had the opportunity to go to Boston to MIT to conduct genotyping work and laboratory training for my PhD dissertation. It was an enriching experience.

What informed your decision to pursue a career in academia?

I was motivated to continue my career in research and academia because I enjoyed designing studies and collaborating with others to ask complex research questions.  I currently co-lead the Disparities, Research, Environment and Multi-omics (DREAM) lab with Drs. Scarlett Lin Gomez and Salma Shariff-Marco. We have a team of approximately 30 staff, including students and postdocs working on a portfolio of about 35 research projects largely focused on cancer health disparities and inequities. We also run the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, where we are responsible for the collection of cancer cases across nine counties, and other cancer surveillance projects affiliated with the registry. I’ve been fortunate to work with great teams in this line of work.

How would you say that your research has evolved?

My research has evolved to expand the research questions we ask across multiple domains. We are always trying to address questions and gaps that we see in the field and adding new layers of data to understand differences in cancer risk across population groups. I started out largely focused on genetic factors and biomarkers and have expanded to studying the neighborhood environment and environmental pollutants, with an emphasis on structural and social determinants of health. I hope in the future to incorporate elements of policy for a comprehensive approach to understand all the contributing factors.

We are thrilled about our new opportunity to establish the first Asian American cohort study of cancer etiology that is funded by the National Cancer Institute. This new cohort will address important questions in understanding cancer risk among specific Asian American ethnicities. Typically, Asian Americans have been aggregated into a collective group along with Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders groups.

What do you enjoy about your current role at the University of California, San Francisco?

I am energized from working with our study team. We collectively bring complimentary expertise and learn from one other. The collaboration of students, trainees and staff comprising of interviewers, biostatisticians, GIS analysts, epidemiologists, and program managers – makes for stronger research questions that we can answer together. Part of our success is having the same goal and dedication in trying to understand differences in cancer risk across population groups.

What advice do you have for students who want to follow in your footsteps?

When it comes to conducting research: always be curious, learn from your experiences, and be open to asking new questions. While academia and obtaining your own research funding is challenging, I have found that being persistent has helped me continue on this journey. Lastly, I’ve been very fortunate to have had wonderful mentorship and worked with great teams, and good collaborators are also key.