Dr. Stampfer’s research program is broadly concerned with the etiology of chronic diseases, with particular focus on nutrition, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
With colleagues in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, and at Channing Laboratory and the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Stampfer is closely involved in four large prospective cohort studies:
- Nurses’ Health Study I (N = 121,700)
- Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (N = 51,259)
- Physicians’ Health Studies I and II (N = 22,071), and
- Nurses’ Health Study II (N = 116,678)
In each of these studies, participants are surveyed every two years to gather information on diet, smoking, physical activity, medications, health screening behavior, and other variables. We also ascertain the new occurrence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other serious illnesses, including diabetes, fractures, kidney stones, and pre-cancerous lesions.
In addition, Dr. Stampfer leads seven NIH-funded projects to assess nutritional and biochemical markers of cancer risk among the 15,000 blood samples collected as part of the Physicians’ Health Study.
In his work in the cohort studies, he directs grants addressing the causes of prostate cancer and colon cancer. Dr. Stampfer and colleagues have demonstrated a marked protective effect, both in women and men, of alcohol in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease. In women, however, alcohol appears to be associated with an increase in risk of breast cancer, but this may be mitigated by dietary folate. Recent analyses have shown women who adhere to five simple guidelines (no smoking, not obese, physically active, consume moderate alcohol, and have a good diet) are at 80% lower risk for coronary disease. Analyses of the Physicians’ Health Study blood samples have yielded some surprising results: insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) emerged as the most powerful risk factor for prostate cancer yet identified; it is also strongly linked to colon cancer risk.
All of these large-scale studies are continuing.