Stephen J. Chanock, M.D.

Senior Investigator

Office of the Director

NCI/DCEG

Scientific Director

NCI/DCEG

Research Topics

Dr. Stephen Chanock’s research focuses on expanding our understanding of the biological basis for genetic susceptibility to cancer. To conduct this work, he directs the Laboratory of Genetic Susceptibility (LGS). LGS has set upon the following scientific goals:

Identification and characterization of cancer susceptibility alleles
Characterization of the scope of genetic mosaicism and its contribution to cancer risk
Investigation of the genetic architecture of cancer susceptibility
Determination of how germline variation informs our understanding of somatic alterations in cancer

Biography

Dr. Chanock is a leading expert in the discovery and characterization of cancer susceptibility regions in the human genome. He has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions to our understanding of common inherited genetic variants associated with cancer risk and outcomes.

Dr. Chanock received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1983 and completed clinical training in pediatrics, pediatric infectious diseases, and pediatric hematology/oncology and research training in molecular genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. Since 1995, Dr. Chanock has served as the Medical Director for Camp Fantastic, a week-long recreational camp for pediatric cancer patients, which is a joint venture of the NCI and Special Love, Inc.

From 2001-2007, he was a tenured investigator in the Genomic Variation Section of the Pediatric Oncology Branch in the NCI Center for Cancer Research. He also served as co-chair of NCI's Genetics, Genomics and Proteomics Faculty for five years. In 2001, he was appointed as Chief of the Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory (formerly Core Genotyping Facility), and in 2007 as Chief of the Laboratory of Translational Genomics, both within the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). Dr. Chanock co-led the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility project. From 2012 to 2013, he also served as Acting Co-Director of the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics. Dr. Chanock was appointed Director of DCEG in August 2013.

Selected Publications

Machiela MJ, Zhou W, Sampson JN, Dean MC, Jacobs KB, Black A, Brinton LA, Chang IS, Chen C, Chen C, Chen K, Cook LS, Crous Bou M, De Vivo I, Doherty J, Friedenreich CM, Gaudet MM, Haiman CA, Hankinson SE, Hartge P, Henderson BE, Hong YC, Hosgood HD 3rd, Hsiung CA, Hu W, Hunter DJ, Jessop L, Kim HN, Kim YH, Kim YT, Klein R, Kraft P, Lan Q, Lin D, Liu J, Le Marchand L, Liang X, Lissowska J, Lu L, Magliocco AM, Matsuo K, Olson SH, Orlow I, Park JY, Pooler L, Prescott J, Rastogi R, Risch HA, Schumacher F, Seow A, Setiawan VW, Shen H, Sheng X, Shin MH, Shu XO, VanDen Berg D, Wang JC, Wentzensen N, Wong MP, Wu C, Wu T, Wu YL, Xia L, Yang HP, Yang PC, Zheng W, Zhou B, Abnet CC, Albanes D, Aldrich MC, Amos C, Amundadottir LT, Berndt SI, Blot WJ, Bock CH, Bracci PM, Burdett L, Buring JE, Butler MA, Carreón T, Chatterjee N, Chung CC, Cook MB, Cullen M, Davis FG, Ding T, Duell EJ, Epstein CG, Fan JH, Figueroa JD, Fraumeni JF Jr, Freedman ND, Fuchs CS, Gao YT, Gapstur SM, Patiño-Garcia A, Garcia-Closas M, Gaziano JM, Giles GG, Gillanders EM, Giovannucci EL, Goldin L, Goldstein AM, Greene MH, Hallmans G, Harris CC, Henriksson R, Holly EA, Hoover RN, Hu N, Hutchinson A, Jenab M, Johansen C, Khaw KT, Koh WP, Kolonel LN, Kooperberg C, Krogh V, Kurtz RC, LaCroix A, Landgren A, Landi MT, Li D, Liao LM, Malats N, McGlynn KA, McNeill LH, McWilliams RR, Melin BS, Mirabello L, Peplonska B, Peters U, Petersen GM, Prokunina-Olsson L, Purdue M, Qiao YL, Rabe KG, Rajaraman P, Real FX, Riboli E, Rodríguez-Santiago B, Rothman N, Ruder AM, Savage SA, Schwartz AG, Schwartz KL, Sesso HD, Severi G, Silverman DT, Spitz MR, Stevens VL, Stolzenberg-Solomon R, Stram D, Tang ZZ, Taylor PR, Teras LR, Tobias GS, Viswanathan K, Wacholder S, Wang Z, Weinstein SJ, Wheeler W, White E, Wiencke JK, Wolpin BM, Wu X, Wunder JS, Yu K, Zanetti KA, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Ziegler RG, de Andrade M, Barnes KC, Beaty TH, Bierut LJ, Desch KC, Doheny KF, Feenstra B, Ginsburg D, Heit JA, Kang JH, Laurie CA, Li JZ, Lowe WL, Marazita ML, Melbye M, Mirel DB, Murray JC, Nelson SC, Pasquale LR, Rice K, Wiggs JL, Wise A, Tucker M, Pérez-Jurado LA, Laurie CC, Caporaso NE, Yeager M, Chanock SJ. Characterization of large structural genetic mosaicism in human autosomes. Am J Hum Genet. 2015;96(3):487-97.
Machiela MJ, Ho BM, Fisher VA, Hua X, Chanock SJ. Limited evidence that cancer susceptibility regions are preferential targets for somatic mutation. Genome Biol. 2015;16:193.
Bigot P, Colli LM, Machiela MJ, Jessop L, Myers TA, Carrouget J, Wagner S, Roberson D, Eymerit C, Henrion D, Chanock SJ. Functional characterization of the 12p12.1 renal cancer-susceptibility locus implicates BHLHE41. Nat Commun. 2016;7:12098.
Zhou W, Machiela MJ, Freedman ND, Rothman N, Malats N, Dagnall C, Caporaso N, Teras LT, Gaudet MM, Gapstur SM, Stevens VL, Jacobs KB, Sampson J, Albanes D, Weinstein S, Virtamo J, Berndt S, Hoover RN, Black A, Silverman D, Figueroa J, Garcia-Closas M, Real FX, Earl J, Marenne G, Rodriguez-Santiago B, Karagas M, Johnson A, Schwenn M, Wu X, Gu J, Ye Y, Hutchinson A, Tucker M, Perez-Jurado LA, Dean M, Yeager M, Chanock SJ. Mosaic loss of chromosome Y is associated with common variation near TCL1A. Nat Genet. 2016;48(5):563-8.
Wu C, Wang Z, Song X, Feng XS, Abnet CC, He J, Hu N, Zuo XB, Tan W, Zhan Q, Hu Z, He Z, Jia W, Zhou Y, Yu K, Shu XO, Yuan JM, Zheng W, Zhao XK, Gao SG, Yuan ZQ, Zhou FY, Fan ZM, Cui JL, Lin HL, Han XN, Li B, Chen X, Dawsey SM, Liao L, Lee MP, Ding T, Qiao YL, Liu Z, Liu Y, Yu D, Chang J, Wei L, Gao YT, Koh WP, Xiang YB, Tang ZZ, Fan JH, Han JJ, Zhou SL, Zhang P, Zhang DY, Yuan Y, Huang Y, Liu C, Zhai K, Qiao Y, Jin G, Guo C, Fu J, Miao X, Lu C, Yang H, Wang C, Wheeler WA, Gail M, Yeager M, Yuenger J, Guo ET, Li AL, Zhang W, Li XM, Sun LD, Ma BG, Li Y, Tang S, Peng XQ, Liu J, Hutchinson A, Jacobs K, Giffen C, Burdette L, Fraumeni JF Jr, Shen H, Ke Y, Zeng Y, Wu T, Kraft P, Chung CC, Tucker MA, Hou ZC, Liu YL, Hu YL, Liu Y, Wang L, Yuan G, Chen LS, Liu X, Ma T, Meng H, Sun L, Li XM, Li XM, Ku JW, Zhou YF, Yang LQ, Wang Z, Li Y, Qige Q, Yang WJ, Lei GY, Chen LQ, Li EM, Yuan L, Yue WB, Wang R, Wang LW, Fan XP, Zhu FH, Zhao WX, Mao YM, Zhang M, Xing GL, Li JL, Han M, Ren JL, Liu B, Ren SW, Kong QP, Li F, Sheyhidin I, Wei W, Zhang YR, Feng CW, Wang J, Yang YH, Hao HZ, Bao QD, Liu BC, Wu AQ, Xie D, Yang WC, Wang L, Zhao XH, Chen SQ, Hong JY, Zhang XJ, Freedman ND, Goldstein AM, Lin D, Taylor PR, Wang LD, Chanock SJ. Joint analysis of three genome-wide association studies of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Chinese populations. Nat Genet. 2014;46(9):1001-1006.