Julie R. Palmer, ScD, MPH

Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Palmer is a cancer epidemiologist based at the Slone Epidemiology Center, with research projects spanning cancer early detection, etiology, and survivorship. Her primary focus is on elucidating reasons for the disproportionately high incidence of hormone receptor negative breast cancer in U.S. Black women and on understanding and reducing racial disparities in breast cancer mortality. She is a founding leader of the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS), a prospective cohort study of 59,000 self-identified Black women who enrolled in 1995 and have been followed by biennial questionnaire since that time. Her breast cancer research within the BWHS includes work on risk prediction models for breast cancer in U.S. Black women, identifying differences in childbearing patterns as a contributing cause to the excess incidence of estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in Black women, and investigating the interrelationships of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and inflammation on breast cancer risk. Her current grants support work on somatic mutations, epigenetics, and gene expressions profiles in breast cancer tumors from African American women, setting the stage for a better understanding of the role of epidemiologic and genetic factors in etiology and prognosis. Dr. Palmer has served on many NIH and external advisory committees, including as Chair of the NIH Cancer, Cardiovascular, and Sleep Epidemiology Study Section, 2015-2017, and Co-Chair of a Working Group for the National Cancer Advisory Board, NCI, 2018-2019. Dr. Palmer was awarded the AACR Distinguished Lectureship on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in 2017. She has served as a Komen Scholar since 2018 and as a Breast Cancer Research Foundation Investigator since 2023.

Publications

  • Published 4/15/2025

    Schoemaker MJ, Ellington T, Nichols HB, Wright LB, Jones ME, O'Brien KM, Weinberg CR, Adami HO, Baglietto L, Bertrand KA, Chen Y, Clague DeHart J, Eliassen AH, Giles GG, Houghton SC, Kirsh VA, Milne RL, Palmer JR, Park HL, Rohan TE, Severi G, Shu XO, Tamimi RM, Vatten LJ, Weiderpass E, Willett WC, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Zheng W, Sandler DP, Swerdlow AJ. Central and peripheral adiposity and premenopausal breast cancer risk: a pooled analysis of 440,179 women. Breast Cancer Res. 2025 Apr 15; 27(1):55. PMID: 40234955.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/27/2025

    Bigham Z, Holder EX, Rodday AM, Breeze JL, Nelson KP, Palmer JR, Freund KM, Bertrand KA. Reproductive determinants of mammographic density in black women. Cancer Causes Control. 2025 Mar 27. PMID: 40146429.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/6/2025

    Kim J, Williams A, Noh H, Jasper EA, Jones SH, Jaworski JA, Shuey MM, Ruiz-Narváez EA, Wise LA, Palmer JR, Connolly J, Keaton JM, Denny JC, Khan A, Abbass MA, Rasmussen-Torvik LJ, Kottyan LC, Madhivanan P, Krupp K, Wei WQ, Edwards TL, Velez Edwards DR, Hellwege JN. Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies novel risk loci for uterine fibroids within and across multiple ancestry groups. Nat Commun. 2025 Mar 06; 16(1):2273. PMID: 40050615.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/23/2025

    Shan Y, Bertrand KA, Petrick JL, Sheehy S, Palmer JR. Planetary Health Diet Index in relation to mortality in a prospective cohort study of United States Black females. Am J Clin Nutr. 2025 Mar; 121(3):589-596. PMID: 39863116.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/21/2025

    Griswold MK, Crawford SL, Person SD, Rosenberg L, Palmer JR, Cozier YC. Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status and Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration Among Primiparous Black Women. Breastfeed Med. 2025 May; 20(5):310-319. PMID: 39835974.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 488 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Professor, Epidemiology
    Boston University School of Public Health
  • Director, Slone Epidemiology Center
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
  • Co-Director, BU-BMC Cancer Center
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University
  • Member, Genome Science Institute
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • Harvard University, ScD
  • Boston University, MPH
  • Boston University, BS
  • Brown University, BA

View all profiles