Department of Preventive Medicine

Research Activities

A major area is epidemiologic research on lifestyle factors aiming disease prevention and health promotion. Fundamental research methods are between-population studies, case-control studies, and cohort studies. Between-population studies examine the association between a factor of interest and a disease under study at population or community levels and provide etiological clues in the etiology of disease. In case-control studies, prior exposure to a factor is compared between cases of a specific disease and controls without it. In cohort studies, individuals are followed up with respect to disease occurrence in the future with exposure or lifestyle factors ascertained at baseline. Of our particular interest are diseases showing unique descriptive features in Japan and factors which can be studied exclusively in Japanese. See profiles of teaching staff for details of individual research projects.

Chikako Kiyohara

PhD in Medical Sciences

Ongoing study projects

1.Studies on genome epidemiology of lung cancer

１)1) International Collaborative Study on Genetic Susceptibility to Environmental Carcinogens (GSEC).
Website: http://ilcco.iarc.fr/about.php. Working Group on Lung Cancer.

The objectives of the project of the working group:
a) To assess the prevalence of gene variants in different populations
b) To assess the magnitude of lung cancer risk associated with gene variants in different populations
c) To assess gene-gene and gene-environment interactions in different populations

2) International Lung Cancer Consortium (ILCCO).
Website: http://www.upci.upmc.edu/research/ccps/ccontrol/g_intro.html.
Working Group on Genetic Susceptibility.

The objectives of the project of the working group:
a) To achieve greater statistical power, especially for subgroup (race/ethnicity, histology, age group, etc.) analyses
b) To reduce duplication of research effort, replicate novel findings, and afford substantial cost savings
We have conducted pooled analyses on sequence variants in DNA repair pathway supported by U.S. NCI grant (CA 119704).

2.Other epidemiological studies (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among children, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and allergic disease)

The objectives of the studies:
a) To identify lifestyle-related/environmental/genetic risk factors (ADHD, SLE and allergic disease)
b) To evaluate interactions between lifestyle-related/environmental and genetic risk factors (SLE and allergic disease)
c) To determine interactions between maternal smoking during pregnancy and polymorphisms in dopamine related genes (ADHD)

Recent publications

  1. Raimondi S, Paracchini V, Autrup H, Benhamou S, Boffetta P, Cote ML, Dialyna IA, Dolzan V, Dragani T, Garte S, Hirvonen A, Husgafvel-Pursiainen K, Imyanitov EN, Kalina I, Kang D, Kiyohara C, Kremers P, Lan Q, Neri M, Povey AC, Rannug A, Reszka E, Risch A, Romkes M, Ruano-Ravina A, Schneider J, Seow A, Shields PG, Sobti RC, Sørensen M, Spitz MR, Strange RC, Stücker I, Sugimura H, To-Figueras J, Tokudome S, Yang P, Yokota J, Warholm M Taioli E. Meta- and pooled analysis of GSTT1 and lung cancer: a HuGE-GSEC review. Am J Epidemiol, 164: 1027-1042, 2006 (GSEC project, basically in alphabetical order).
  2. Vineis P, Anttila S, Benhamou S, Spinola M, Hirvonen A, Kiyohara C, Garte SJ, Puntoni R, Rannug A, Strange RC, Taioli E. Evidence of gene-gene interactions in lung carcinogenesis in a large pooled analysis. Carcinogenesis, 28: 1902-1905, 2007 (GSEC project, basically in alphabetical order).
  3. Kiyohara C, Yoshimasu K, Takayama K, Nakanishi Y. Lung cancer susceptibility: are we on our way to identifying a high-risk group? Future Oncol, 3: 617-627, 2007.
  4. Kiyohara C, Tanaka K, Miyake Y. Genetic susceptibility to atopic dermatitis. Allergol Int, 57: 39-56, 2008.
  5. Lee KM, Kang D, Clapper ML, Ingelman-Sundberg M, Ono-Kihara M, Kiyohara C, Min S, Lan Q, Le Marchand L, Lin P, Lung ML, Pinarbasi H, Pisani P, Srivatanakul P, Seow A, Sugimura H, Tokudome S, Yokota J, Taioli E. CYP1A1, GSTM1, and GSTT1 Polymorphisms, Smoking, and Lung Cancer Risk in a Pooled Analysis among Asian Populations. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 17: 1120-1226, 2008 (GSEC project, basically in alphabetical order).
  6. Hung RJ, Christiani DC, Risch A, Popanda O, Haugen A, Zienolddiny S, Benhamou S, Bouchardy C, Lan Q, Spitz MR, Wichmann H-E, Marchand LL, Vineis P, Matullo G, Kiyohara C, Zhang Z-F, Harris C, Mechanic L, Seow A,. Ng DPK, Szeszenia-Dabrowska N , Zaridze D, Lissowska J, Rudnai P, Fabianova E, Mate D, Foretova L, Janout V, Bencko V, Caporaso N, Chen C, Duell1 EJ, Goodman G, Field JK, Houlston RS, Hong Y-C, Landi MT, Lazarus P, MuscatJ, McLaughlin J, Schwartz AG, Shen H, Stucker I, Tajima K, Matsuo K, Thun M, Yang P, Wiencke J, Andrew AS, Monnier S, Boffetta P, Brennan P. International Lung Cancer Consortium: Pooled analysis of sequence variants in DNA repair and cell cycle control pathways. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev, 17: 3081-3089, 2008 (ILCCO project, basically in alphabetical order).
  7. Cote ML, Chen W, Sealy-Jefferson S, Autrup H, Behamou S, Butkiewicz D, Fong KM, Gené M, Hirvonen A, Kiyohara C, Larsen JE, Lin P, Povey AC, Reszka E, Risch A, Schneider J, Schwartz AG, Sorensen M, To-Figueras J, Tokudome S, Pu Y, Yang P, Wenzlaff AS, Taioli E. Meta- and Pooled Analysis of GSTP1 and Lung Cancer: A HuGE-GSEC Review. Am J Epdemiol, 169: 802-814, 2009 (GSEC project, basically in alphabetical order).
  8. Kiyohara C, Washio M, Horiuchi T, Tada Y, Asami T, Ide S , Takahashi H, Kobashi G and the Kyushu Sapporo SLE (KYSS) Study Group. Cigarette smoking, N-acetyltransferase 2 polymorphism and systemic lupus erythematosus in a Japanese population. Lupus, 18: 630-638, 2009.
  9. Kiyohara C, Washio M, Horiuchi T, Tada Y, Asami T, Ide S , Atsumi T, Kobashi G, Takahashi H and the Kyushu Sapporo SLE (KYSS) Study Group. Cigarette smoking, STAT4 and TNFRSF1B polymorphisms, and systemic lupus erythematosus in a Japanese population. J Rheumatol, 36: 2195-2203, 2009.
  10. Kiyohara C, Horiuchi T, Takayama K, Nakanishi Y. IL1B rs1143634 polymorphism, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and lung cancer risk in a Japanese population. J Thorac Oncol, 5: 299-304, 2010.
  11. Kiyohara C, Yoshimasu K. Association between major depressive disorder and a functional polymorphism of the 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) transporter gene: a meta-analysis. Psychiatr Genet, 20:49-58, 2010.
  12. Kiyohara C, Miyake Y, Fujimoto T, Tanaka K, Fukushima W, Sasaki S, Tsuboi Y, Yamada T, Oeda T, Miki T, Kawamura N, Sakae N, Fukuyama H, Hirota Y, Nagai M for the Fukuoka Kinki Parkinson's Disease Study Group. GST polymorphisms, interaction with smoking and pesticide use, and risk for Parkinson's disease in a Japanese population. Parkinsonism Relat Disord, in press.
  13. Kiyohara C, Washio M. Encyclopedia of Cancer, 3rd Edition, Lung cancer and smoking habit, Springer Reference Live: Cancer (inaccessible at the current moment).

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