Faculty

• Professor and Director, Cancer Epidemiology Program
• Associate Director for Cancer Control and Population Sciences

Degrees

• MD, Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, China
• PhD, Clinical Biochemistry University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
• MSc, Epidemiology University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Research Focus

Dr. Yu has recently joined the University of Hawaii Cancer Center as the director of the Cancer Epidemiology Program and associate director for Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Previously, he spent 10 years as a teacher, researcher and mentor in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine at Yale University where he had achieved the status of full professor.

Dr. Yu received training in epidemiology and laboratory research and has extensive experience in population-based epidemiologic investigation and patient-oriented clinical studies. His most recent research focuses on gene-environment interaction in cancer development, molecular features of tumor progression, and changes in epigenetic regulation in relation to tumor progression and cancer prognosis.

He has completed many clinical and epidemiologic studies on several major cancer sites, including the breast, ovary, liver, lung, endometrium, and prostate. These studies span a wide range of topics, including genetic susceptibility, genotypes and phenotypes of sex steroid hormone and growth factors and their interactions, lifestyle influence on epigenetic regulation, and biomarkers for cancer prognosis and patient management.

Dr. Yu has investigated DNA methylation in tumor suppressor and DNA repair genes, methylator phenotype in relation to tumor progression, methylation pattern in multiple promoters, methylation regulation of microRNA, and physical activity and epigenetic regulation. In addition, he has been involved in several GWAS projects, and is the principal investigator of a population-based case-control study of hepatocellular carcinoma and co-investigator of several clinical and epidemiological studies funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Publications

• Lu L, Risch H, Irwin M, Mayne S., Cartmel B., Schwartz P, Rutherford T, Yu H. Long-term overweight and weight gain in early adulthood in association with risk of endometrial cancer. Int J Cancer 2011 (in press)
• Zeng H, Irwin ML, Lu L, Risch H, Mayne S, Mu L, Deng Q, Scarampi L, Mitidieri M, Katsaros D, Yu H. Physical activity and breast cancer survival – an epigenetic link through reduced methylation of a tumor suppressor gene L3MBTL1. Breast Cancer Res Treat 2011 (in press).
• Arem H, Irwin, ML, Zhou Y, Lu L, Risch H, Yu H. Physical activity and endometrial cancer in a population-based case-control study. Cancer Causes Control 2011; 22(2):219-226.
• Lu L, Zhang C, Zhu G, Irwin M, Risch H, Menato G, Mitidieri M, Katsaros D, Yu H. Telomerase expression and telomere length in breast cancer and their associations with adjuvant treatment and disease outcome. Breast Cancer Res 2011; 13:R56.

Publication list via PubMed

Active Grants

• R01 CA138698
  “Epidemiologic Study of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the US”
  August 1, 2010-June 31, 2015
• H. Yu, Subcontract Principal Investigator, (G. Ho, Principal Investigator)
  R01 CA143597-01
  “Serum levels of EGFR-signaling-network activators/inhibitors and risk of lung cancer”
  July 1, 2010-June 30, 2013
• H. Yu, Co-Investigator, (E. Claus, Principal Investigator)
  R01 CA151933
  “The Meningioma Consortium: Genome-Wide Association Study”
  July 1, 2010-June 30, 2015
• H. Yu, Co-Investigator, (M. Irwin, Principal Investigator)
  R01 CA132931
  “RCT of exercise on aromatase inhibitor side effects in breast cancer survivors”
  July 1, 2009-June 30, 2013