Leslie Bernstein, Ph.D.
Professor in PracticeDr. Leslie Bernstein, was recently named Professor and Director of the Department of Cancer Etiology in the Division of Population Sciences at the City of Hope National Medical Center. She has also taken on the role at the City of Hope as the Dean for Faculty Development. In taking these positions, Dr. Bernstein retired from the University of Southern California (USC), becoming Professor Emerita.
Dr. Bernstein spent 31 years at USC. She began her career at USC as a masters degree student in gerontology in 1976, entering graduate school when her children became teenagers. She then moved to the School of Medicine for her PhD in biostatistics, granted in 1981. She joined USC’s faculty in 1983 as an assistant professor. At the time she retired from USC, she was professor of preventive medicine, the first holder of the AFLAC, Incorporated, Chair in Cancer Research at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and program leader for the Women’s Cancers Program at the Norris Cancer Center. For 20 years, Dr. Bernstein served as the Scientific Director of the Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program, a population-based cancer registry that is one of the NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registries. She continues as a senior advisor to the registry, and as Professor Emerita at USC, is still supervising several research projects at the university. She serves as the co-director for the Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) center at USC, which focuses on the prevention of obesity and promotion of a physically active lifestyle in children as a means for future cancer prevention.
Although Dr Bernstein was trained as a biostatistician and still serves as a biostatistical consultant to her colleagues, she developed a cancer epidemiology research program with a primary focus on breast cancer early in her research career. Her major research interests have been on how endogenous and exogenous hormones, physical activity, and obesity influence breast cancer risk; how personal and lifestyle risk factors interact with breast cancer treatment to affect the subsequent risk of other chronic diseases such as a second primary breast cancer, endometrial cancer, stroke and myocardial infarction; and how diet, obesity and physical activity affect breast cancer prognosis and influence the breast cancer survivor’s quality of life. Dr. Bernstein has also conducted studies to identify risk factors that may lead to the development of endometrial cancer, esophageal cancers and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
Dr. Bernstein is one of the initiators of the California Teachers Study, a cohort of 133,479 women formed in 1995 to address ongoing questions in breast cancer etiology with a major focus on lifestyle factors that are amenable to intervention. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator for this study. In addition to assessing factors that may predispose to the development of breast cancer in this large cohort, Dr. Bernstein is also studying the impact of modifiable lifestyle factors on breast cancer survival and on the risk for developing lymphedema in women treated for breast cancer.
In the past, Dr. Bernstein served for 8 years as the senior associate dean for faculty affairs at the USC’s Keck School of Medicine and for 2 years as the University’s Vice Provost for Medical Affairs. In December, 2007, Dr. Bernstein received the AACR-Prevent Cancer Foundation Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research from the American Association for Cancer Research. Also in December, 2007, she was awarded the Susan Komen for the Cure (Foundation) Brinker Award. Both awards cite her scientific distinction and seminal contributions to breast cancer research. Dr. Bernstein has also received USC’s Presidential Medallion, the University’s highest honor; the Elaine Stevely Hoffman Achievement Award for outstanding service to the School of Medicine; the outstanding alumnus award from USC’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology; and the American Society for Preventive Oncology’s Distinguished Achievement Award. Dr. Bernstein recently completed a five year term on the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors and now serves as a member of Subcommittee E, the peer review committee for NCI Program Project Grant applications. She is a fellow in the American College of Epidemiology and the American Epidemiology Society. She has served as president for the Society for Epidemiologic Research and currently serves on their Executive Board. Dr. Bernstein chairs a number of national scientific advisory committees including the advisory committees for the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study I and Nurses’ Health Study II, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Sisters Study, and the M. D. Anderson Comprehensive Cancer Centers’ Mexican American Health Study.
Research Interests
- Epidemiology
- Cancer Prevention, particularly breast cancer
- Esophageal Adenocarcinoma
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Education
- University of Southern California, PHD, 1981
- University of Southern California, MS, 1978
Selected Publications
Bertelsen L, Bernstein L, Olsen JH, Mellemkjær L, Haile R, Lynch CF, Malone KM, Anton-Culver H, Christensen J, Langholz B, Thomas DC, Begg C, Capanu M, Thompson D, Ejlertsen B, Stovall M, Boice JD, Shore RE, The WECARE Study Collaborative Group, Bernstein JL. The effect of systemic adjuvant treatment on risk of contralateral breast cancer in the WECARE Study. J Natl Cancer Inst, 100, 32-40, 2008.
Begg CB, Haile RW, Borg A, Malone KE, Concannon P, Thomas DC, Langholz B, Bernstein L, Olsen JH, Lynch CF, Anton-Culver H, Capanu M, Liang X, Humer AJ, Sima C, Bernstein JL. Penetrance and heterogeneity of breast cancer risk among BRCA1/2 carriers: An investigation by the WECARE Study Group. JAMA, 299, 194-201, 2008.
Li CI, Malone KE, Daling JR, Potter JD, Bernstein L, Marchbanks PA, Strom BL, Simon MS, Press MF, Ursin G, Burkman RT, Folger SG, Norman S, McDonald JA, Spirtas R. Timing of menarche and first full-term pregnancy in relation to breast cancer risk. Am J Epidemiol, 167, 230-239, 2008.
Duan L* Wu AH, Sullivan-Halley J, Bernstein L. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of esophageal and gastric adenocarcinomas in Los Angeles County. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 17, 126-134, 2008.
Lee E* Haiman CA, Ma H, Vandenberg D, Bernstein L, Ursin G. The role of established breast cancer susceptibility loci in mammographic density in young women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 17, 258-260, 2008.
Shen M, Cozen W, Huang L, Colt J, De Roos AJ, Severson RK, Cerhan JR, Bernstein L, Morton LM, Pickle L, Ward MH. Census and geographic differences between respondents and non-respondents in a case-control study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Am J Epidemiol, 167, 350-361, 2008.
Setiawan VW, Chu LH, John EM, Ding YC, Ingles SA, Bernstein L, Press MF, Ursin G, Haiman CA, Neuhausen SL. Mitochondrial DNA G10398A variant is not associated with breast cancer in African American women. Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics, 181, 16-19, 2008 (PMID:18262047).
Trabert B, Malone KE, Daling JR, Doody DR, Bernstein L, Ursin G, Marchbanks PA, Strom BL, Humphrey MC, Ostrander EA. Vitamin D receptor polymorphisms and breast cancer risk in a large population-based case control study. Breast Cancer Res, 2007 Dec7;9(6):R84 (PMID: 18067661).
Berstad P, Ma H*, Bernstein L, Ursin G. Breast cancer risk and alcohol intake among young women. Br Cancer Res Treat, 108, 113-120, 2008 (PMID: 17468952).
Mellemkjær L, Dahl C, Olsen JH, Bertelsen L, Guldberg P, Christensen J, Børresen-Dale AL, Stovall M, Langholz B, Bernstein L, Lynch CF, Malone KE, Haile R, Andersson M, Thomas DC, Concannon P, Capanu M, Boyce JD, the WECARE Study Collaborative Group, Bernstein JL. Risk for contralateral breast cancer among carriers of CHEK2*1100delC: a population-based multi-center case-control study. Br J Cancer, 98:728-733, 2008 (PMID: 18253122).
Willett EV, Morton LM, Hartge P, Becker N, Bernstein L, Boffetta P, Cerhan J, Chiu BCH, Cocco P, Dal Maso L, Davis S, De Sanjose S, Smedby KE, Foretova L, Holly E, La Vecchia C, Matsuo K, Maynadie M, Melbye M, Severson R, Spinelli JJ, Staines A, Vornanen M, Roman E for the InterLymph Consortium. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and obesity: a pooled analysis from the InterLymph Consortium. Int J Cancer, 122, 2062-2070, 2008 (PMID: 18167059).
Figueiredo JC*, Bernstein L, Capanu M, Malone KE, Haile RW, Bernstein JL, WECARE Study Collaborative Group. Oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy and risk of asynchronous bilateral breast cancer. The WECARE Study Group. (corresponding author) J Clinical Oncol, 26, 1411-1418, 2008 (PMID: 18250348).
Stuedal A, Ma H* Bernstein L, Pike MC, Ursin G. Does breast size modify the association between mammographic density and breast cancer risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 17, 621-627, 2008 (PMID: 18349279).
Alfano, C. M., Smith, A. W., Irwin, M., Bowen, D.J., Sorensen, B., Reeve, B., Meeske KA, Bernstein, L., Baumgartner, K.B., Ballard-Barbash, R., Malone, K., McTiernan, A. Physical activity, long-term symptoms, and health-related quality of life among breast cancer survivors: A prospective analysis. J Cancer Survivorship, 1, 116-128, 2007 (avail 2008).
Ma H*, Hill CK, Bernstein L, Ross RK, Ursin G. Low-dose medical radiation and breast cancer risk in women under age 50 years overall and by estrogen and progesterone receptor status. Breast Cancer Res Treat, 109, 77-90, 2007 (PMID: 17616809).
Knight JA, Lesosky M, Blackmore K, Voigt LF, Holt VL, Bernstein L, Marchbanks PA, Burkman RT, Daling JR, Whittemore AS. Ovarian cysts and breast cancer: Results from the Women’s Contraceptive and Reproductive Experiences Study. Breast Cancer Res Treat, 109, 157-164, 2007 (PMID: 17616808).
Chang ET, Lee VS, Canchola AJ, Dalvi T, Clarke CA, Reynolds P, Purdie DM, Stram DO, West DW, Bernstein L, Horn-Ross PL. Dietary patterns and risk of ovarian cancer in the California Teachers Study cohort. Nutr Cancer, 60, 285-291, 2008
Lee E*, McKean-Cowdin R, Ma H, Chen Z, Vandenberg D, Henderson BE, Bernstein L, Ursin G. Evaluation of unclassified variants (UVs) in the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 using five methods: Results from a population-based study of young breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res 10:R19, 2008 (PMID: 18284688).
Henderson KD*, Sullivan-Halley J, Reynolds P, Horn-Ross PL, Clarke CA, Chang ET, Neuhausen S, Ursin G, Bernstein L. Incomplete pregnancy is not associated with breast cancer risk: the California Teachers Study. Contraception, 77, 391-396, 2008.
DeLellis Henderson K*, Bernstein L, Henderson BE, Kolonel L, Pike MC. Determinants of age at natural menopause: The Multiethnic Cohort. Am J Epidemiol, 167, 1287-1294, 2008 (PMID: 18359953).
Zhang Y, de Sanjose S, Bracci PM, Morton LM, Wang R, Brennan P, Hartge P, Boffetta P, Becker N, Maynadie M, Foretova L, Cocco P, Staines A, Holford T, Holly EA, Nieters A, Benavente Y, Bernstein L, Zahm SH, Zheng T. Personal hair dye use increases the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: Results from the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). Am J Epidemiol, 167, 1321-1331, 2008.
Horn-Ross PL, Lee VS, Collins C, Stewart SL, Canchola AJ, Lee MM, Reynolds P, Clarke CA, Bernstein L, Stram DO. Dietary assessment in the California Teachers Study: Reproducibility and validity. Cancer Cause Control, 19, 595-603 (PMID: 18256894).
