University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: January 17, 2008

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer

As a researcher who studies the connection between diet and disease, Amy Millen says UB’s reputation as a pioneer in the field of nutritional epidemiology was one of the first things that attracted her to the university.

Amy Millen says she was drawn to UB because of its reputation in the field of nutritional epidemiology. Her current projects focus on the connections between breast cancer and vitamin D.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

Millen, assistant professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions, joined the UB faculty as a research assistant professor in 2005 after two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. She was hired as an assistant professor in the department last March.

As a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow, she had heard about UB’s rich history in epidemiologic research and former chair Saxon Graham’s reputation in the field of chronic disease and diet research. “Saxon Graham, who was chair of this department in the 1980s, is one of the fathers of nutritional epidemiology,” she says. Millen also wanted the opportunity to work with breast cancer researcher Jo Freudenheim. “I really wanted the opportunity to learn from her and pursue research related to women’s health.”

For the past two years, Millen says she has been fulfilling these goals through collaborations with Freudenheim, UB Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, and Jean Wactawski-Wende, professor and associate chair of the department. Millen has been analyzing data from the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer Study (WEB) and the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study—two massive data-collection projects that contain priceless information on the health and health-risk factors of 3,000 women in Western New York and nearly 100,000 from across 40 WHI clinical centers in the United States, respectively. Freudenheim is principal investigator on the WEB study; Wactawski-Wende is principal investigator for the Buffalo site of the WHI study. Millen’s work on these projects has been supported by a $120,000 grant from the New York State Department of Health.

Both of Millen’s current projects explore connections between breast cancer and vitamin D. The WEB project focuses on the relationship between breast cancer risk and genetic differences influencing the role of vitamin D in cell regulation—specifically single nucleotide polymorphisms in the vitamin D receptor. The WHI project is investigating associations between breast-cancer incidence by latitude of residence, as a proxy measure of vitamin D exposure. Humans can make vitamin D from a cholesterol precursor in their skin when it is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun, Millen explains, noting that one’s location of residence by latitude affects the amount of sunlight one is exposed to, and thus the amount of vitamin D an individual has the opportunity to synthesize.

“People often don’t think about vitamin D being involved in anything other than bone health because it helps with the absorption of calcium,” she says, “but then researchers started noticing other tissues in the body, such as breast tissue and prostate tissue, can make the active form of vitamin D. They’ve shown in cell cultures that it controls cell growth—it decreases the proliferation of cells and helps cells differentiate—so people in cancer [research] are excited because this suggests vitamin D has some role in regulating cell growth in the body.”

Yet, she says controversy has arisen regarding research supporting a connection between prevention of certain types of cancer and vitamin D—evidence of which has been mounting for at least the past five years, she says. Because humans can make the vitamin in their skin when exposed to sunlight, this is of concern since sun exposure is also a risk factor for skin cancer, she says. However, other than sunlight, there are few rich sources of vitamin D—primarily fortified milk, fatty fish and vitamin supplements.

“It’s hard from a public health perspective because clearly there are conflicting issues,” she says. “I don’t want people to go out and burn themselves in the sun—because that’s not what I’m advocating at all—but I believe there must be a balance between getting a certain amount of sun exposure while not burning yourself or causing skin damage and enough sunlight to allow you to synthesize vitamin D.”

Information from the WHI Observational Study has proven to be particularly important to Millen’s work. “Ecologic studies show there’s more breast cancer in northern areas, which get less sunlight throughout the year, than southern areas,” she explains, “but a lot of those studies just looked at mortality from breast cancer in general areas”—by state or region of the U.S., for instance. “What’s interesting about the [WHI] study is we have data on people’s lifestyle habits and risk factors.” She says this allows researchers to weed out so-called “confounders,” such as alcohol consumption or poor diet or exercise, in order to focus on women whose greatest common risk factor for breast cancer is their geographic latitude.

The recipient of a doctorate in nutritional sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bucknell University, Millen says she remains in contact with her former dissertation advisor, Julie Mares, professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at UW-Madison, through another project in which she is involved related to macular degeneration—another disease in which researchers speculate vitamin D plays a role. She also is collaborating with Freudenheim in a pilot study with a local plastic surgeon in Williamsville to investigate connections between breast health and blood nutrient levels using tissue from women undergoing breast-reduction surgery.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about the characteristics of healthy breast tissue because obviously it’s not something you can ask people to donate,” she says. “Right now, most tissue from a breast reduction surgery gets thrown away after the pathologists take what they need.”

Growing up in Oregon, Minnesota and Massachusetts, Millen now resides in the Village of Kenmore with her husband, William Brady, a biostatistician at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and native of Elma.

“That was not at all planned,” laughs Millen, who met Brady long before coming to Buffalo. “It just all worked out. It’s been great, though, because we’ve both been able to get really great jobs and be active in our careers. It’s been a good move for both of us.”