Endowed chair takes aim at
smoking-related illnesses
by Mary
Helen YarboroughPublic Relations
Anthony J. Alberg, Ph.D., is taking aim at the dangers of cigarette smoking. As the Blatt Ness endowed chair of oncology, Alberg plans to conduct research that may prove broader health risks to smoking and secondhand smoke exposure.
Dr. Anthony AlbergAlberg was awarded the endowed chair in April, and has brought to MUSC and to the Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) a celebrated track record of accomplishments in the field of epidemiological research. He also is the HCC’s associate director of Cancer Prevention and Control.
Prior to joining MUSC, Alberg served on the faculty of the Bloomberg School for Public Health at Johns Hopkins University where he also earned his Ph.D.
Alberg’s primary interest is tobacco control and the contribution of active and passive cigarette smoke to cancer etiology.
Ongoing research in these areas includes secondhand smoke and cancer, the use of nicotine replacement therapies in populations and molecular epidemiology of lung cancer. Other areas of study include the contribution of lifestyle factors to cancer, with a recently completed project funded by the World Cancer Research Fund to perform a systematic literature review of diet, nutrition and physical activity in relation to cancers of the lung and nasopharynx.
Perturbed by reports that tobacco companies are boosting nicotine levels in cigarettes, Alberg said preventing youths and young adults from starting to smoke and helping dependent smokers to quit smoking is key in the battle over a number of cancers that have been linked to it, which in total accounts for one-third of all cancer deaths. He credits publicity over the dangers of smoking and the U.S. Surgeon General’s reports with forcing a major decline in smoking prevalence since 1964, which was eventually followed by a decline in smoking-related cancers.
The availability of many forms of nicotine replacement therapy and other smoking cessation pharmacotherapies has greatly expanded the menu of options available to enhance the likelihood that smokers’ attempts to quit will be successful, and Alberg hopes to foster research to better understand barriers to the more widespread appropriate use of these smoking cessation aids. This is a research focus for newly recruited assistant professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Matthew Carpenter, Ph.D., who also is joining the HCC’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program.
In developing the HCC’s Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Alberg is placing a premium on building an interdisciplinary research program that addresses cancer prevention, early detection and survivorship. For an example of cancer survivorship, Cindy Carter, Ph.D., HCC director of psychosocial oncology, recently submitted a proposal to NIH to evaluate the potential benefits to cancer survivors of participating in the ancient Chinese sport of dragon boating in which people paddle a boat as a team. “Dr. Carter’s hypothesis is that participating in a team sport in peaceful natural surroundings may have psychosocial benefits to cancer survivors above and beyond the benefits of exercise alone,” Alberg said.
In addition, Alberg is looking forward to nurturing evaluation and research components into a number of exciting, ongoing programs in cancer prevention and control, overseen by Brenda Nickerson, R.N., and Debbie Bryant, R.N. These programs include the MUSC Mobile Health Unit, which provides prevention and early detection services in medically under-served areas. Technologically advanced methods of delivery are used, such as a patient navigation program that helps connect women who have an abnormal mammogram with assistance and treatment. Alberg said he is excited about working side by side with Marvella Ford, Ph.D., HCC associate director for cancer disparities, on these and other projects.
While smoking-related cancer is Alberg’s key interest, he also is accomplished in skin cancer research. With funding from the National Cancer Institute, he will study why people with nonmelanoma skin cancers tend to have a higher risk for developing other cancers. He is also enthusiastic about exploring newly emerging ways to reduce the cancer burden, such as the diffusion of the recently approved vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.
Alberg was the co-director of the George W. Comstock Center for Public Health Research and Prevention, director of the Cancer Epidemiology Program and an associate professor at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University before accepting the job at MUSC.
A graduate from Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health with a master’s degree in public health, Alberg also attended the University of California at Davis and received a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1980.
Alberg has published more than 70 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals and contributed to 24 grants in his field of expertise. He has developed a national reputation in cancer prevention and control. He has also been a lecturer and mentor from the beginning of his career and has shared his knowledge with a generation of medical and public health students.
“Dr. Alberg brings to us his tremendous knowledge of the epidemiology of skin and lung cancer and will help the Hollings Cancer Center to fulfill its mission of prevention and lessening the cancer burden for all people in South Carolina,” said Andrew Kraft, M.D., director of Hollings Cancer Center.
“On behalf of the Hollings Cancer Center, we are pleased to have him on board as our associate director of Prevention and Control, and we all look forward to partnering with him to discover ways citizens can alter their lifestyle to lessen the likelihood of developing all cancers.”
The Blatt Ness Distinguished Endowed Chair in Oncology was established by attorneys from the former Law Offices of Ness Motley Richardson Loadholt & Poole, P.A., to honor the careers of the late House Speaker Solomon Blatt and the late S.C. Supreme Court Justice B. “Bubba” Ness.
Blatt was the country’s longest serving state legislator, having devoted 53 of his 91 years to the S.C. House of Representatives.
Ness was elected to the S.C. Supreme Court in 1974, following service as a state senator and circuit judge. He was elected chief justice in 1985 and served until 1988.
An endowed chair is an elite faculty appointment that carries with it a stable, guaranteed source of funding to support the chair-holder’s work. A chair is usually established by a pool of philanthropically- provided funds totaling $1 million, which is invested in a professionally managed fund. The principal remains in this fund, generating interest income that is used to attract and support a leading scientist.
Friday, Sept. 22, 2006
Catalyst Online is published weekly,
updated
as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public
Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of
South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at
792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to
Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to
catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island
Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.