Julie R. Palmer, ScD, MPH
Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Professor, 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 African American 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 African American 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 African American women, identifying differences in childbearing patterns as a contributing cause to the excess incidence of estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in African American 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.
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
Education
- Harvard University, ScD
- Boston University, MPH
- Boston University, BS
- Brown University, BA
Publications
- Published on 6/27/2024
Tjader NP, Beer AJ, Ramroop J, Tai MC, Ping J, Gandhi T, Dauch C, Neuhausen SL, Ziv E, Sotelo N, Ghanekar S, Meadows O, Paredes M, Gillespie JL, Aeilts AM, Hampel H, Zheng W, Jia G, Hu Q, Wei L, Liu S, Ambrosone CB, Palmer JR, Carpten JD, Yao S, Stevens P, Ho WK, Pan JW, Fadda P, Huo D, Teo SH, McElroy JP, Toland AE. Association of ESR1 Germline Variants with TP53 Somatic Variants in Breast Tumors in a Genome-wide Study. Cancer Res Commun. 2024 Jun 27; 4(6):1597-1608. PMID: 38836758.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/4/2024
Sun X, Verma SP, Jia G, Wang X, Ping J, Guo X, Shu XO, Chen J, Derkach A, Cai Q, Liang X, Long J, Offit K, Oh JH, Reiner AS, Watt GP, Woods M, Yang Y, Ambrosone CB, Ambs S, Chen Y, Concannon P, Garcia-Closas M, Gu J, Haiman CA, Hu JJ, Huo D, John EM, Knight JA, Li CI, Lynch CF, Mellemkjaer L, Nathanson KL, Nemesure B, Olopade OI, Olshan AF, Pal T, Palmer JR, Press MF, Sanderson M, Sandler DP, Troester MA, Zheng W, Bernstein JL, Buas MF, Shu X. Case-Case Genome-Wide Analyses Identify Subtype-Informative Variants that Confer Risk for Breast Cancer. Cancer Res. 2024 Jun 04. PMID: 38832928.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/3/2024
Habeshian TS, Peeri NC, De Vivo I, Schouten LJ, Shu XO, Cote ML, Bertrand KA, Chen Y, Clarke MA, Clendenen TV, Cook LS, Costas L, Dal Maso L, Freudenheim JL, Friedenreich CM, Gallagher G, Gierach GL, Goodman MT, Jordan SJ, La Vecchia C, Lacey JV, Levi F, Liao LM, Lipworth L, Lu L, Matias-Guiu X, Moysich KB, Mutter GL, Na R, Naduparambil J, Negri E, O'Connell K, O'Mara TA, Onieva Hernández I, Palmer JR, Parazzini F, Patel AV, Penney KL, Prizment AE, Ricceri F, Risch HA, Sacerdote C, Sandin S, Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ, van den Brandt PA, Webb PM, Wentzensen N, Wijayabahu AT, Wilkens LR, Xu W, Yu H, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Zheng W, Du M, Setiawan VW. Hypertension and Risk of Endometrial Cancer: A Pooled Analysis in the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium (E2C2). Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2024 Jun 03; 33(6):788-795. PMID: 38530242.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/29/2024
Drew DA, Kim AE, Lin Y, Qu C, Morrison J, Lewinger JP, Kawaguchi E, Wang J, Fu Y, Zemlianskaia N, Díez-Obrero V, Bien SA, Dimou N, Albanes D, Baurley JW, Wu AH, Buchanan DD, Potter JD, Prentice RL, Harlid S, Arndt V, Barry EL, Berndt SI, Bouras E, Brenner H, Budiarto A, Burnett-Hartman A, Campbell PT, Carreras-Torres R, Casey G, Chang-Claude J, Conti DV, Devall MAM, Figueiredo JC, Gruber SB, Gsur A, Gunter MJ, Harrison TA, Hidaka A, Hoffmeister M, Huyghe JR, Jenkins MA, Jordahl KM, Kundaje A, Le Marchand L, Li L, Lynch BM, Murphy N, Nassir R, Newcomb PA, Newton CC, Obón-Santacana M, Ogino S, Ose J, Pai RK, Palmer JR, Papadimitriou N, Pardamean B, Pellatt AJ, Peoples AR, Platz EA, Rennert G, Ruiz-Narvaez E, Sakoda LC, Scacheri PC, Schmit SL, Schoen RE, Stern MC, Su YR, Thomas DC, Tian Y, Tsilidis KK, Ulrich CM, Um CY, van Duijnhoven FJB, Van Guelpen B, White E, Hsu L, Moreno V, Peters U, Chan AT, Gauderman WJ. Two genome-wide interaction loci modify the association of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs with colorectal cancer. Sci Adv. 2024 May 31; 10(22):eadk3121. PMID: 38809988.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/13/2024
Jia G, Ping J, Guo X, Yang Y, Tao R, Li B, Ambs S, Barnard ME, Chen Y, Garcia-Closas M, Gu J, Hu JJ, Huo D, John EM, Li CI, Li JL, Nathanson KL, Nemesure B, Olopade OI, Pal T, Press MF, Sanderson M, Sandler DP, Shu XO, Troester MA, Yao S, Adejumo PO, Ahearn T, Brewster AM, Hennis AJM, Makumbi T, Ndom P, O'Brien KM, Olshan AF, Oluwasanu MM, Reid S, Butler EN, Huang M, Ntekim A, Qian H, Zhang H, Ambrosone CB, Cai Q, Long J, Palmer JR, Haiman CA, Zheng W. Genome-wide association analyses of breast cancer in women of African ancestry identify new susceptibility loci and improve risk prediction. Nat Genet. 2024 May; 56(5):819-826. PMID: 38741014.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/2/2024
Ping J, Jia G, Cai Q, Guo X, Tao R, Ambrosone C, Huo D, Ambs S, Barnard ME, Chen Y, Garcia-Closas M, Gu J, Hu JJ, John EM, Li CI, Nathanson K, Nemesure B, Olopade OI, Pal T, Press MF, Sanderson M, Sandler DP, Yoshimatsu T, Adejumo PO, Ahearn T, Brewster AM, Hennis AJM, Makumbi T, Ndom P, O'Brien KM, Olshan AF, Oluwasanu MM, Reid S, Yao S, Butler EN, Huang M, Ntekim A, Li B, Troester MA, Palmer JR, Haiman CA, Long J, Zheng W. Using genome and transcriptome data from African-ancestry female participants to identify putative breast cancer susceptibility genes. Nat Commun. 2024 May 02; 15(1):3718. PMID: 38697998.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/26/2024
Chen Z, Guo X, Tao R, Huyghe JR, Law PJ, Fernandez-Rozadilla C, Ping J, Jia G, Long J, Li C, Shen Q, Xie Y, Timofeeva MN, Thomas M, Schmit SL, Díez-Obrero V, Devall M, Moratalla-Navarro F, Fernandez-Tajes J, Palles C, Sherwood K, Briggs SEW, Svinti V, Donnelly K, Farrington SM, Blackmur J, Vaughan-Shaw PG, Shu XO, Lu Y, Broderick P, Studd J, Harrison TA, Conti DV, Schumacher FR, Melas M, Rennert G, Obón-Santacana M, Martín-Sánchez V, Oh JH, Kim J, Jee SH, Jung KJ, Kweon SS, Shin MH, Shin A, Ahn YO, Kim DH, Oze I, Wen W, Matsuo K, Matsuda K, Tanikawa C, Ren Z, Gao YT, Jia WH, Hopper JL, Jenkins MA, Win AK, Pai RK, Figueiredo JC, Haile RW, Gallinger S, Woods MO, Newcomb PA, Duggan D, Cheadle JP, Kaplan R, Kerr R, Kerr D, Kirac I, Böhm J, Mecklin JP, Jousilahti P, Knekt P, Aaltonen LA, Rissanen H, Pukkala E, Eriksson JG, Cajuso T, Hänninen U, Kondelin J, Palin K, Tanskanen T, Renkonen-Sinisalo L, Männistö S, Albanes D, Weinstein SJ, Ruiz-Narvaez E, Palmer JR, Buchanan DD, Platz EA, Visvanathan K, Ulrich CM, Siegel E, Brezina S, Gsur A, Campbell PT, Chang-Claude J, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H, Slattery ML, Potter JD, Tsilidis KK, Schulze MB, Gunter MJ, Murphy N, Castells A, Castellví-Bel S, Moreira L, Arndt V, Shcherbina A, Bishop DT, Giles GG, Southey MC, Idos GE, McDonnell KJ, Abu-Ful Z, Greenson JK, Shulman K, Lejbkowicz F, Offit K, Su YR, Steinfelder R, Keku TO, van Guelpen B, Hudson TJ, Hampel H, Pearlman R, Berndt SI, Hayes RB, Martinez ME, Thomas SS, Pharoah PDP, Larsson SC, Yen Y, Lenz HJ, White E, Li L, Doheny KF, Pugh E, Shelford T, Chan AT, Cruz-Correa M, Lindblom A, Hunter DJ, Joshi AD, Schafmayer C, Scacheri PC, Kundaje A, Schoen RE, Hampe J, Stadler ZK, Vodicka P, Vodickova L, Vymetalkova V, Edlund CK, Gauderman WJ, Shibata D, Toland A, Markowitz S, Kim A, Chanock SJ, van Duijnhoven F, Feskens EJM, Sakoda LC, Gago-Dominguez M, Wolk A, Pardini B, FitzGerald LM, Lee SC, Ogino S, Bien SA, Kooperberg C, Li CI, Lin Y, Prentice R, Qu C, Bézieau S, Yamaji T, Sawada N, Iwasaki M, Le Marchand L, Wu AH, Qu C, McNeil CE, Coetzee G, Hayward C, Deary IJ, Harris SE, Theodoratou E, Reid S, Walker M, Ooi LY, Lau KS, Zhao H, Hsu L, Cai Q, Dunlop MG, Gruber SB, Houlston RS, Moreno V, Casey G, Peters U, Tomlinson I, Zheng W. Fine-mapping analysis including over 254,000 East Asian and European descendants identifies 136 putative colorectal cancer susceptibility genes. Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 26; 15(1):3557. PMID: 38670944.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/27/2024
Potter AL, Xu NN, Senthil P, Srinivasan D, Lee H, Gazelle GS, Chelala L, Zheng W, Fintelmann FJ, Sequist LV, Donington J, Palmer JR, Yang CJ. Pack-Year Smoking History: An Inadequate and Biased Measure to Determine Lung Cancer Screening Eligibility. J Clin Oncol. 2024 Jun 10; 42(17):2026-2037. PMID: 38537159.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/19/2024
Von Holle A, Adami HO, Baglietto L, Berrington de Gonzalez A, Bertrand KA, Blot W, Chen Y, DeHart JC, Dossus L, Eliassen AH, Fournier A, Garcia-Closas M, Giles G, Guevara M, Hankinson SE, Heath A, Jones ME, Joshu CE, Kaaks R, Kirsh VA, Kitahara CM, Koh WP, Linet MS, Park HL, Masala G, Mellemkjaer L, Milne RL, O'Brien KM, Palmer JR, Riboli E, Rohan TE, Shrubsole MJ, Sund M, Tamimi R, Tin Tin S, Visvanathan K, Vermeulen RC, Weiderpass E, Willett WC, Yuan JM, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Nichols HB, Sandler DP, Swerdlow AJ, Schoemaker MJ, Weinberg CR. BMI and breast cancer risk around age at menopause. Cancer Epidemiol. 2024 Apr; 89:102545. PMID: 38377945.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/7/2024
Ruiz-Narváez EA, Cozier Y, Zirpoli G, Rosenberg L, Palmer JR. Perceived Experiences of racism in Relation to Genome-Wide DNA Methylation and Epigenetic Aging in the Black Women's Health Study. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2024 Feb 07. PMID: 38324238.
Read at: PubMed
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