Mondays with Dr. Mark & Dr. Michael: The Power of Prevention: How 40% of US Cancer Cases Could Be Avoided

As Senior Scientific Director, Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, leads the Cancer Disparity Research team in the Surveillance & Health Equity Science department at the American Cancer Society. His research focuses on quantifying the impact of factors that contribute to cancer disparities across the cancer continuum, including etiology, prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship. He has also conducted extensive research on the risk factors of cancer that are potentially modifiable, including estimating the burden of cancer attributable to cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, unhealthy diet, UV exposure, and carcinogenic infections in the United States and some other countries. As a member of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; the cancer research agency for the World Health Organization) team, he has been in seven IARC handbooks and Monographs, which identify environmental factors that can increase the risk of human cancer, and results of these evaluations are used by many notional and international authorities to make risk assessments and formulate decisions concerning preventive measures. Additionally, he was a member of the external working group for Monograph volume 116 (Carcinogenicity of drinking coffee, mate, and very hot beverages) and IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention, volume 20 (Reduction of alcohol consumption). Dr. Islami obtained a MD degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, and a PhD in Epidemiology from King’s College London, United Kingdom. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow and scientist at IARC (Lyon, France) and as a faculty member at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York) before joining the American Cancer Society in 2014.

Julianne Roman, MPH, MSSW is the Associate Director, Community Partnerships at the American Cancer Society in New York. She engages FQHC, CHC, and CBO partners through convening, implementing evidence-based strategies, and sharing resources to improve the lives of patients with cancer and their families. She also provides technical assistance to encourage implementation of evidence-based interventions with partners to increase HPV vaccination and cancer screening rates. Before joining the American Cancer Society, Julianne worked at the New York State Psychiatric Institute as part of the Opioid Response Network, an organization dedicated to providing training and technical assistance to health systems and organizations on the prevention, treatment, and recovery from opioid and stimulant use disorders. Julianne received her MPH and MSSW from Columbia University with a focus on health promotion and social policy, respectively.