Scientist Profiles

Dee W. West, Ph.D. Chief Scientific Officer, Northern California Cancer Center Professor, Stanford University Health Research & Policy Department - Epidemiology 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:

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 (96)


Education:

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



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