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Dee W. West, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Northern California Cancer Center
Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Dept. of Health Research & Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine
Associate Director, Population Sciences, Stanford Cancer Center

2201 Walnut Avenue, Suite 300
Fremont, California 94538-2334
E-mail: dwest@nccc.org
Phone: 510-608-5000
Fax: 510-608-5085

Research Interests:

Understanding patterns of cancer incidence and survival using cancer registry data
Understanding survival following cancer, with emphasis on quality of life, comorbidity, and treatment issues
Understanding the interaction of genes and environment as risks for cancer
Improving cancer surveillance methods, especially cancer registration

In the 1970s, Dr. West authored papers of diet and colon, stomach, and oral cancers in New York. In Utah, he was Principal Investigator for a program grant of diet and colon cancer where he created a nutrient database, including home preserved foods, and examined diet by site in the colon.

In California, Dr. West was an investigator in a collaborative study of prostate cancer. He published papers on diet and thyroid cancer and diet and cancer in a cohort of California teachers.

As Principal Investigator of the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry, Dr. West developed a surveillance research team that published on cancer incidence and survival trends.

Recent focus on cancer treatment and outcomes: Dr. West is Co-Investigator of the Cancer Care Outcomes Research Study (CanCORS) for colorectal and lung cancer that recruited over 5,000 colorectal and 5,000 lung cancer patients from which interview and medical record information is being collected.

Dr. West is also Co-Investigator of the Northern California component of the Breast Cancer Family Registry. This group has recruited over 11,000 families for which epidemiologic, family history, and biospecimen data are available. He also helped create the California Teachers Study (cohort of 133,000 California teachers) who are followed for cancer and other outcomes.

Selected Research Projects:

Accuracy of racial classification of Vietnamese patients in a population-based cancer registry

California Teachers Study

Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORS)

Colorectal Cancer Cooperative Family Registry

All research projects (7)

Selected Research Publications:

Brown LM, Gridley G, Wu AH, Falk RT, Hauptmann M, Kolonel LN, West DW, Nomura AMY, Pike MC, Hoover RN, Ziegler RG., Low level alcohol intake, cigareete smoking and risk of breast cancer in Asian-American Women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2009, July 12. [Epub ahead of print].

Phillips K-A, Milne RL, West DW, Goodwin PJ, Giles GG, Chang ET, Figueiredo JC, Friedlander ML, Keegan THM, Glendon G, Apicella C, O’Malley FP, Southey MC, Andrulis IL, John EM, Hopper JL. Pre-diagnosis reproductive factors and all-cause mortality for women with breast cancer in the Breast Cancer Family Registry. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009; 18 (6):1792-7.

West DW, Clarke CA. Rapidly increasing trends of melanoma in nonwhite populations: new data from New Zealand. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Jun; 18(6):1674-5. No abstract available.

Kurian AW, Gong GD, John EM, Miron A, Felberg A, Phipps AI, West DW, Whittemore AS. Performance of prediction models for BRCA mutation carriage in three racial/ethnic groups: findings from the Northern California Breast Cancer Family Registry. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Apr; 18(4):1084-91. Epub 2009 Mar 31.

Braithwaite D, Tammemagi CM, Moore DH, Ozanne EM, Hiatt RA, Belkora J, West DW, Satariano WA, Liebman M, Esserman L. Hypertension is an independent predictor of survival disparity between African-American and white breast cancer patients. Int J Cancer. 2009 Mar 1 ;124(5):1213-9.

Yost KJ, Hahn EA, Zaslavsky AM, Ayanian JZ, West DW. Predictors of health-related quality of life in patients with colorectal cancer. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2008 Aug 25 ;6:66.

Chang ET, Lee VS, Canchola AJ, Dalvi TB, Clarke CA, Reynolds P, Purdie DM, Stram DO, West DW, Ziogas A, Bernstein L, Horn-Ross PL. Dietary patterns and risk of ovarian cancer in the California Teachers Study cohort. Nutr Cancer. 2008; 60(3):285-91.

Bane AL, Beck JC, Bleiweiss I, Buys SS, Catalano E, Daly MB, Giles G, Godwin AK, Hibshoosh H, Hopper JL, John EM, Layfield L, Longacre T, Miron A, Senie R, Southey MC, West DW, Whittemore AS, Wu H, Andrulis IL, O'Malley FP. BRCA2 Mutation-associated Breast Cancers Exhibit a Distinguishing Phenotype Based on Morphology and Molecular Profiles From Tissue Microarrays. Am J Surg Pathol 2007; 31(1):121-128.

Lee JS, John EM, McGuire V, Felberg A, Ostrow KL, DiCioccio RA, Li FP, Miron A, West DW, Whittemore AS. Breast and ovarian cancer in relatives of cancer patients, with and without BRCA mutations. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006; 15(2):359-63.

McGuire V, John EM, Felberg A, Haile RW, Boyd NF, Thomas DC, Jenkins MA, Milne RL, Daly MB, Ward J, Terry MB, Andrulis IL, Knight JA, Godwin AK, Giles GG, Southey M, West DW, Hopper JL, Whittemore AS. No Increased Risk of Breast Cancer Associated with Alcohol Consumption among Carriers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 Mutations Ages <50 Years. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006; 15(8):1565-7.

Yost KJ, Cella D, Chawla A, Holmgren E, Eton DT, Ayanian JZ, West DW. Minimally important differences were estimated for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal (FACT-C) instrument using a combination of distribution- and anchor-based approaches. J Clin Epidemiol 2005; 58(12):1241-51.

Ayanian JZ, Zaslavsky AM, Guadagnoli E, Fuchs CS, Yost KJ, Creech CM, Cress RD, O'Connor LC, West DW, Wright WE. Patients' perceptions of quality of care for colorectal cancer by race, ethnicity, and language. J Clin Oncol 2005; 23(27):6576-86.

All publications (101)

Education:

INSTITUTION AND LOCATION	DEGREE, YEAR	FIELD OF STUDY
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT	B.S., 1967	Sociology
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT	M.S., 1968	Sociology
State University of New York at Buffalo	Ph.D., 1973	Medical Sociology

Professional Memberships, Professional Activities, and Awards:

American College of Epidemiology	American Society of Preventive Oncology
Society for Epidemiologic Research	American Public Health Association
International Association of Cancer Registries	American Association for Cancer Research

1995 - 1997 President, North American Association of Central Cancer Registries
1996 - 2000 Executive Board, International Association of Cancer Registries
2000 - present Chair, National Coordination Council for Cancer Surveillance

Web site Links:
Stanford website for Dr. West:
http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/cancer/frdActionServlet?choiceId=printerprofile&fid=6327

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