David J. Hunter
Emeritus Faculty

David J. Hunter

Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, Emeritus

Epidemiology

dhunter@hsph.harvard.edu


Overview

David Hunter's principal research interests are the etiology of cancer in women, particularly breast, ovarian, and skin cancer. He is an investigator on the Nurses' Health Study, a long-running cohort of 121,000 US women, and is project director for the Nurses' Health Study II, a newer cohort of 116,000 women. He also analyzes inherited susceptibility to cancer and other chronic diseases using molecular techniques and studying molecular markers of environmental exposures. This work is based in subcohorts of the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study of approximately 33,000 women and 18,000 men who have given a blood sample that can be used for DNA analysis. Dr. Hunter supervises laboratories at the Harvard School of Public Health in which gene sequence information from these samples is obtained. He is Co-Chair of the NCI Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium. He collaborates with investigators in Tanzania to understand the relationship of nutritional status to progression of HIV disease and perinatal transmission. Professor Hunter was the Director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention from 1997-2003, and is now Director of the Program in Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health.

MB, BS, 1982
University of Sydney Medical School

MPH, 1985
Harvard School of Public Health

ScD, 1988
Harvard School of Public Health


Bibliography

Author Correction: Deciphering colorectal cancer genetics through multi-omic analysis of 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of European and east Asian ancestries.

Fernandez-Rozadilla C, Timofeeva M, Chen Z, Law P, Thomas M, Schmit S, Díez-Obrero V, Hsu L, Fernandez-Tajes J, Palles C, Sherwood K, Briggs S, Svinti V, Donnelly K, Farrington S, Blackmur J, Vaughan-Shaw P, Shu XO, Long J, Cai Q, Guo X, Lu Y, Broderick P, Studd J, Huyghe J, Harrison T, Conti D, Dampier C, Devall M, Schumacher F, Melas M, Rennert G, Obón-Santacana M, Martín-Sánchez V, Moratalla-Navarro F, Oh JH, Kim J, Jee SH, Jung KJ, Kweon SS, Shin MH, Shin A, Ahn YO, Kim DH, Oze I, Wen W, Matsuo K, Matsuda K, Tanikawa C, Ren Z, Gao YT, Jia WH, Hopper J, Jenkins M, Win AK, Pai R, Figueiredo J, Haile R, Gallinger S, Woods M, Newcomb P, Duggan D, Cheadle J, Kaplan R, Maughan T, Kerr R, Kerr D, Kirac I, Böhm J, Mecklin LP, Jousilahti P, Knekt P, Aaltonen L, Rissanen H, Pukkala E, Eriksson J, Cajuso T, Hänninen U, Kondelin J, Palin K, Tanskanen T, Renkonen-Sinisalo L, Zanke B, Männistö S, Albanes D, Weinstein S, Ruiz-Narvaez E, Palmer J, Buchanan D, Platz E, Visvanathan K, Ulrich C, Siegel E, Brezina S, Gsur A, Campbell P, Chang-Claude J, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H, Slattery M, Potter J, Tsilidis K, Schulze M, Gunter M, Murphy N, Castells A, Castellví-Bel S, Moreira L, Arndt V, Shcherbina A, Stern M, Pardamean B, Bishop T, Giles G, Southey M, Idos G, McDonnell K, Abu-Ful Z, Greenson J, Shulman K, Lejbkowicz F, Offit K, Su YR, Steinfelder R, Keku T, van Guelpen B, Hudson T, Hampel H, Pearlman R, Berndt S, Hayes R, Martinez ME, Thomas S, Corley D, Pharoah P, Larsson S, Yen Y, Lenz HJ, White E, Li L, Doheny K, Pugh E, Shelford T, Chan A, Cruz-Correa M, Lindblom A, Hunter D, Joshi A, Schafmayer C, Scacheri P, Kundaje A, Nickerson D, Schoen R, Hampe J, Stadler Z, Vodicka P, Vodickova L, Vymetalkova V, Papadopoulos N, Edlund C, Gauderman W, Thomas D, Shibata D, Toland A, Markowitz S, Kim A, Chanock S, van Duijnhoven F, Feskens E, Sakoda L, Gago-Dominguez M, Wolk A, Naccarati A, Pardini B, FitzGerald L, Lee SC, Ogino S, Bien S, Kooperberg C, Li C, Lin Y, Prentice R, Qu C, Bézieau S, Tangen C, Mardis E, Yamaji T, Sawada N, Iwasaki M, Haiman C, Le Marchand L, Wu A, Qu C, McNeil C, Coetzee G, Hayward C, Deary I, Harris S, Theodoratou E, Reid S, Walker M, Ooi LY, Moreno V, Casey G, Gruber S, Tomlinson I, Zheng W, Dunlop M, Houlston R, Peters U.

Nat Genet. 2023 Mar. 55(3):519-520. PMID: 36782065

Aggregation tests identify new gene associations with breast cancer in populations with diverse ancestry.

Mueller SH, Lai AG, Valkovskaya M, Michailidou K, Bolla MK, Wang Q, Dennis J, Lush M, Abu-Ful Z, Ahearn TU, Andrulis IL, Anton-Culver H, Antonenkova NN, Arndt V, Aronson KJ, Augustinsson A, Baert T, Freeman LEB, Beckmann MW, Behrens S, Benitez J, Bermisheva M, Blomqvist C, Bogdanova NV, Bojesen SE, Bonanni B, Brenner H, Brucker SY, Buys SS, Castelao JE, Chan TL, Chang-Claude J, Chanock SJ, Choi JY, Chung WK, Colonna SV, Cornelissen S, Couch FJ, Czene K, Daly MB, Devilee P, Dörk T, Dossus L, Dwek M, Eccles DM, Ekici AB, Eliassen AH, Engel C, Evans DG, Fasching PA, Fletcher O, Flyger H, Gago-Dominguez M, Gao YT, García-Closas M, García-Sáenz JA, Genkinger J, Gentry-Maharaj A, Grassmann F, Guénel P, Gündert M, Haeberle L, Hahnen E, Haiman CA, Håkansson N, Hall P, Harkness EF, Harrington PA, Hartikainen JM, Hartman M, Hein A, Ho WK, Hooning MJ, Hoppe R, Hopper JL, Houlston RS, Howell A, Hunter DJ, Huo D, Ito H, Iwasaki M, Jakubowska A, Janni W, John EM, Jones ME, Jung A, Kaaks R, Kang D, Khusnutdinova EK, Kim SW, Kitahara CM, Koutros S, Kraft P, Kristensen VN, Kubelka-Sabit K, Kurian AW, Kwong A, Lacey JV, Lambrechts D, Le Marchand L, Li J, Linet M, Lo WY, Long J, Lophatananon A, Mannermaa A, Manoochehri M, Margolin S, Matsuo K, Mavroudis D, Menon U, Muir K, Murphy RA, Nevanlinna H, Newman WG, Niederacher D, O'Brien KM, Obi N, Offit K, Olopade OI, Olshan AF, Olsson H, Park SK, Patel AV, Patel A, Perou CM, Peto J, Pharoah PDP, Plaseska-Karanfilska D, Presneau N, Rack B, Radice P, Ramachandran D, Rashid MU, Rennert G, Romero A, Ruddy KJ, Ruebner M, Saloustros E, Sandler DP, Sawyer EJ, Schmidt MK, Schmutzler RK, Schneider MO, Scott C, Shah M, Sharma P, Shen CY, Shu XO, Simard J, Surowy H, Tamimi RM, Tapper WJ, Taylor JA, Teo SH, Teras LR, Toland AE, Tollenaar RAEM, Torres D, Torres-Mejía G, Troester MA, Truong T, Vachon CM, Vijai J, Weinberg CR, Wendt C, Winqvist R, Wolk A, Wu AH, Yamaji T, Yang XR, Yu JC, Zheng W, Ziogas A, Ziv E, Dunning AM, Easton DF, Hemingway H, Hamann U, Kuchenbaecker KB.

Genome Med. 2023 01 26. 15(1):7. PMID: 36703164

Deciphering colorectal cancer genetics through multi-omic analysis of 100,204 cases and 154,587 controls of European and east Asian ancestries.

Fernandez-Rozadilla C, Timofeeva M, Chen Z, Law P, Thomas M, Schmit S, Díez-Obrero V, Hsu L, Fernandez-Tajes J, Palles C, Sherwood K, Briggs S, Svinti V, Donnelly K, Farrington S, Blackmur J, Vaughan-Shaw P, Shu XO, Long J, Cai Q, Guo X, Lu Y, Broderick P, Studd J, Huyghe J, Harrison T, Conti D, Dampier C, Devall M, Schumacher F, Melas M, Rennert G, Obón-Santacana M, Martín-Sánchez V, Moratalla-Navarro F, Oh JH, Kim J, Jee SH, Jung KJ, Kweon SS, Shin MH, Shin A, Ahn YO, Kim DH, Oze I, Wen W, Matsuo K, Matsuda K, Tanikawa C, Ren Z, Gao YT, Jia WH, Hopper J, Jenkins M, Win AK, Pai R, Figueiredo J, Haile R, Gallinger S, Woods M, Newcomb P, Duggan D, Cheadle J, Kaplan R, Maughan T, Kerr R, Kerr D, Kirac I, Böhm J, Mecklin LP, Jousilahti P, Knekt P, Aaltonen L, Rissanen H, Pukkala E, Eriksson J, Cajuso T, Hänninen U, Kondelin J, Palin K, Tanskanen T, Renkonen-Sinisalo L, Zanke B, Männistö S, Albanes D, Weinstein S, Ruiz-Narvaez E, Palmer J, Buchanan D, Platz E, Visvanathan K, Ulrich C, Siegel E, Brezina S, Gsur A, Campbell P, Chang-Claude J, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H, Slattery M, Potter J, Tsilidis K, Schulze M, Gunter M, Murphy N, Castells A, Castellví-Bel S, Moreira L, Arndt V, Shcherbina A, Stern M, Pardamean B, Bishop T, Giles G, Southey M, Idos G, McDonnell K, Abu-Ful Z, Greenson J, Shulman K, Lejbkowicz F, Offit K, Su YR, Steinfelder R, Keku T, van Guelpen B, Hudson T, Hampel H, Pearlman R, Berndt S, Hayes R, Martinez ME, Thomas S, Corley D, Pharoah P, Larsson S, Yen Y, Lenz HJ, White E, Li L, Doheny K, Pugh E, Shelford T, Chan A, Cruz-Correa M, Lindblom A, Hunter D, Joshi A, Schafmayer C, Scacheri P, Kundaje A, Nickerson D, Schoen R, Hampe J, Stadler Z, Vodicka P, Vodickova L, Vymetalkova V, Papadopoulos N, Edlund C, Gauderman W, Thomas D, Shibata D, Toland A, Markowitz S, Kim A, Chanock S, van Duijnhoven F, Feskens E, Sakoda L, Gago-Dominguez M, Wolk A, Naccarati A, Pardini B, FitzGerald L, Lee SC, Ogino S, Bien S, Kooperberg C, Li C, Lin Y, Prentice R, Qu C, Bézieau S, Tangen C, Mardis E, Yamaji T, Sawada N, Iwasaki M, Haiman C, Le Marchand L, Wu A, Qu C, McNeil C, Coetzee G, Hayward C, Deary I, Harris S, Theodoratou E, Reid S, Walker M, Ooi LY, Moreno V, Casey G, Gruber S, Tomlinson I, Zheng W, Dunlop M, Houlston R, Peters U.

Nat Genet. 2023 01. 55(1):89-99. PMID: 36539618

Distinct Reproductive Risk Profiles for Intrinsic-Like Breast Cancer Subtypes: Pooled Analysis of Population-Based Studies.

Jung AY, Ahearn TU, Behrens S, Middha P, Bolla MK, Wang Q, Arndt V, Aronson KJ, Augustinsson A, Beane Freeman LE, Becher H, Brenner H, Canzian F, Carey LA, Czene K, Eliassen AH, Eriksson M, Evans DG, Figueroa JD, Fritschi L, Gabrielson M, Giles GG, Guénel P, Hadjisavvas A, Haiman CA, Håkansson N, Hall P, Hamann U, Hoppe R, Hopper JL, Howell A, Hunter DJ, Hüsing A, Kaaks R, Kosma VM, Koutros S, Kraft P, Lacey JV, Le Marchand L, Lissowska J, Loizidou MA, Mannermaa A, Maurer T, Murphy RA, Olshan AF, Olsson H, Patel AV, Perou CM, Rennert G, Shibli R, Shu XO, Southey MC, Stone J, Tamimi RM, Teras LR, Troester MA, Truong T, Vachon CM, Wang SS, Wolk A, Wu AH, Yang XR, Zheng W, Dunning AM, Pharoah PDP, Easton DF, Milne RL, Chatterjee N, Schmidt MK, García-Closas M, Chang-Claude J.

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2022 12 08. 114(12):1706-1719. PMID: 35723569


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