Anna H. Wu, PhD

Anna H. Wu, PhD is a Professor of Preventive Medicine, Co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program of the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of Cancer Research Core of the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center.  I am an cancer epidemiologist with research experience and publications in breast, ovarian, lung, esophageal/gastric, and other cancers.  I have conducted one of the largest case-control studies of breast cancer in Asian Americans and a mammographic density study in Singapore Chinese to better understand reasons for the rising incidence of breast cancer among Asian Americans and in Asia. Based on results from my observational epidemiologic studies, I have conducted a series of controlled dietary intervention studies using soy and green tea to investigate their breast-specific effects (e.g., mammographic density, breast tissue cell proliferation) as well as systemic effects on sex hormones, growth factors and other biomarkers.  Using the well-established Multiethnic Cohort (MEC), I am now leading one of the first studies to investigate prospectively the role of urinary phthalates and bisphenol A exposures and risk of breast cancer.  I am also co-leading studies on air pollution and risk of breast, lung, and brain cancers among MEC participants in California.  Another area of my research investigates the role of microbiome in relation to breast cancer survivorship and to identify lifestyle and environmental determinants associated with prognosis of ovarian, breast and other cancers.  In a new multicenter collaborative study, we are investigating factors related to racial disparities in ovarian cancer incidence and survival.