Yi Yang

Lifestyle trajectories and cancer risk and mortality

Y.Yang photo

Supervisors names:  Prof Dallas English, A/Prof Allison Hodge, Dr Brigid Lynch, and Dr Pierre-Antoine DuguĂ©

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally and the number of cases is expected to increase over the next two decades.  According to World Cancer Research Fund, most common cancers can be prevented through healthy lifestyle choices. There is substantial evidence that lifestyle factors such as dietary quality and physical activity are associated with cancer risk and mortality. Current evidence has mostly been based on lifestyle exposures measured at a single time point. Given the long induction period of carcinogenesis and that lifestyle behaviours may change after baseline assessment, long-term lifestyle trajectories may be more predictive of cancer risk and mortality compared to exposures assessed at a single point of time.

Using data from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, in which information on lifestyle risk factors was collected at multiple time points, I investigate how these long-term trajectories of lifestyle risk factors are associated with cancer risk and mortality.

PhD scholarship and funding body: Melbourne Research Scholarship, The University of Melbourne