Lorelei Mucci
Primary Faculty

Lorelei Mucci

Professor of Epidemiology

Epidemiology

lmucci@hsph.harvard.edu

Other Positions

Director, Master of Science Degree Program in Epidemiology

Epidemiology

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health


Overview

My major area of research and teaching is cancer epidemiology. I am the Director of the Cancer Epidemiology and Cancer Prevention Program (Area of Interest) within the Department of Epidemiology here at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). In addition, I am Leader of the Cancer Epidemiology Program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

After receiving my doctoral degree in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (formerly the Harvard School of Public Health), I trained as a post-doctoral fellow in cancer epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. At the Karolinska, I gained expertise in using nationwide health registries to examine cancer etiology and formed a long-term partnership with epidemiology colleagues in the Nordic countries. For the past 9 years, my primary faculty appointment has been at the Harvard Chan School, where my research uses integrative molecular epidemiology approaches within cohorts in the United States and globally to investigate research questions focused on cancer etiology, mortality, and survivorship. I serve as co-Principal Investigator for the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (https://sites.sph.harvard.edu/hpfs/) as well as IRONMAN (see below). Below is a summary of some major areas of interest.


Bibliography

Obesogenic High-Fat Diet and MYC Cooperate to Promote Lactate Accumulation and Tumor Microenvironment Remodeling in Prostate Cancer.

Boufaied N, Chetta P, Hallal T, Cacciatore S, Lalli D, Luthold C, Homsy K, Imada EL, Syamala S, Photopoulos C, Di Matteo A, de Polo A, Storaci AM, Huang Y, Giunchi F, Sheridan PA, Michelotti G, Nguyen QD, Zhao X, Liu Y, Davicioni E, Spratt DE, Sabbioneda S, Maga G, Mucci LA, Ghigna C, Marchionni L, Butler LM, Ellis L, Bordeleau F, Loda M, Vaira V, Labbé DP, Zadra G.

Cancer Res. 2024 Jun 04. 84(11):1834-1855. PMID: 38831751

Characterising the contribution of rare protein-coding germline variants to prostate cancer risk and severity in 37,184 cases.

Mitchell J, Camacho N, Shea P, Stopsack KH, Joseph V, Burren O, Dhindsa R, Nag A, Berchuck JE, O'Neill A, Abbasi A, Zoghbi AW, Alegre-Díaz J, Kuri-Morales P, Berumen J, Tapia-Conyer R, Emberson J, Torres JM, Collins R, Wang Q, Goldstein D, Matakidou A, Haefliger C, Anderson-Dring L, March R, Jobanputra V, Dougherty B, Carss K, Petrovski S, Kantoff PW, Offit K, Mucci LA, Pomerantz M, Fabre MA.

medRxiv. 2024 May 10. PMID: 38766261


News

Reducing the burden of prostate cancer

Lorelei Mucci, professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has spent her career seeking to understand why prostate cancer occurs, how it can be prevented, and what patients can do to improve their lives…

Why more sex may lower prostate cancer risk

Frequent ejaculation has been linked with decreased prostate cancer risk. One reason may be that frequent ejaculation may help clear potentially cancer-causing substances from the prostate, according to Harvard Chan School's Lorelei Mucci.

Diet may influence risk of aggressive prostate cancer

Dietary patterns that are associated with inflammation and insulinemia—a condition marked by high levels of insulin in the blood—may put men at an increased risk for aggressive forms of prostate cancer, according to new research led by Harvard…