Cancer Control and Population Sciences Co-Leaders » Cancer Center » UF Health Cancer Center

Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, MSc

Associate Director for Cancer Population Sciences , UF Health Cancer Center

Department: MD-SURGERY-SURGONC-BMSE

Phone: (352) 294-5822

Email: dbraithwaite@ufl.edu

CV: View Curriculum Vitae:

Accomplishments:

Inductee
2017 · Royal Society of Medicine (UK)
Member, Expert Panel
2015 · National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, National Cancer Policy Forum
Mentored Research Scholar Award
2012-2017 · American Cancer Society
Career Catalyst Award
2011-2014 · Susan Komen Foundation
Junior Investigator Award
2011 · National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, University of California, San Francisco
Junior Investigator Award
2010 · Academic Senate, University of California, San Francisco
Hellman Foundation Award for Early Career Faculty
2009 · University of California, San Francisco
Developmental Award
2009 · NIH Bay Area Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE)
Cancer Prevention Research Fellowship (1 awarded nationally in the United States)
2007 · Prevent Cancer Foundation/American Society for Preventive Oncology
Scholar-in-Training Award
2003 · American Association for Cancer Research, Frontiers in Cancer Prevention
Pre-doctoral Fellowship (2 awarded nationally in the United Kingdom)
2000 · Cancer Research U.K.

Research Summary:

Dr. Braithwaite’s research is focused on the intersection of cancer and aging, with the overarching goal of advancing and applying knowledge about aging to cancer population science. The overall goal is to encourage a more individualized approach to cancer screening and care among older adults.

Dr. Braithwaite has extensive experience, expertise, and leadership in large-scale multi-disciplinary NIH-funded efforts of breast and lung cancer screening, risk factors and outcomes, including the R01 Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), R01 Personalized Lung Cancer Screening Network (PLuS), P50 UCSF Breast Cancer SPORE and P30 UCSF Center for Aging in Diverse Communities. As PI or investigator on several of these grants, she has developed cohorts of individuals at risk for invasive cancer and developed comprehensive databases that include pathologic, clinical, biomarker, and risk factor data, as well as follow-up for subsequent disease and death. She has performed multiple epidemiologic studies where she was able to stratify older adults at risk for or diagnosed with cancer into distinct health categories associated with substantially different life expectancies. These studies have been cited by guideline panels, such as the American Cancer Society, the US Preventive Service Taskforce and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Currently, she leads two large multi-site projects that integrate longitudinal cohort data with simulation modeling to determine the benefits and harms of screening for breast and lung cancers in older adults across the levels of advancing age, comorbid conditions and functional status. This work is poised to inform precision screening policy and clinical decision making among older population subgroups for whom the net benefits of screening are currently highly uncertain.

Publications:

2023
Allostatic load and risk of all-cause, cancer-specific, and cardiovascular mortality in older cancer survivors: an analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2010.
Aging and cancer
2023
Trends and factors associated with secondhand smoke exposure among US cancer survivors, 2013-2020.
Cancer
2023
Survival Differences by Comorbidity Burden among Patients with Stage I/II Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer after Thoracoscopic Resection
Cancers
2023
Socioeconomic disparities in immunotherapy use among advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients: analysis of the National Cancer Database.
Scientific reports
2023
Racial and ethnic inequities of palliative care use among advanced Non-Small cell lung cancer patients in the US.
Cancer medicine
2023
Global burden of chronic respiratory diseases and risk factors, 1990-2019: an update from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
EClinicalMedicine
2023
The Intersectionality between Race, Ethnicity, and Residential-Level Socioeconomic Status in Disparities of Head and Neck Cancer Outcomes: A SEER Study
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
2023
Cancer incidence after asthma diagnosis: Evidence from a large clinical research network in the United States.
Cancer medicine
2023
Beyond the AJR: Should Imaging-Based Risk Assessment Tools Be Used in Lung Cancer Screening?
AJR. American journal of roentgenology
2023
Associations of Total Body Fat Mass and Skeletal Muscle Index with All-Cause and Cancer-Specific Mortality in Cancer Survivors
Cancers
2023
Creating Opportunities to Eliminate Disparities in Lung Cancer Outcomes: A Call for Diverse Study Populations. Comment on Kohan et al. Disparity and Diversity in NSCLC Imaging and Genomics: Evaluation of a Mature, Multicenter Database. Cancers 2023, 15, 2096.
Cancers
2023
Association of air pollution with postmenopausal breast cancer risk in UK Biobank.
Breast cancer research : BCR
2022
Racial Differences in Survival Among Advanced-stage Non-small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients Who Received Immunotherapy: An Analysis of the US National Cancer Database (NCDB)
Journal of Immunotherapy
2022
Analysis of Biological Aging and Risks of All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease-Specific Death in Cancer Survivors.
JAMA network open
2022
Cancer diagnosis is associated with a lower burden of dementia and less Alzheimer's-type neuropathology.
Brain : a journal of neurology
2022
Cost-Effectiveness of Screening Mammography Beyond Age 75 Years : A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.
Annals of internal medicine
2022
Frailty and risk of mortality in older cancer survivors and adults without a cancer history: Evidence from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2014.
Cancer
2022
Mammography adherence in relation to function-related indicators in older women.
Preventive medicine
2022
Personalised Lung Cancer Screening (PLuS) study to assess the importance of coexisting chronic conditions to clinical practice and policy: protocol for a multicentre observational study
BMJ Open
2022
Procedural complications associated with invasive diagnostic procedures after lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography.
Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
2022
Simulating Colorectal Cancer Trials Using Real-World Data
JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics
2021
Comorbidity Profiles and Lung Cancer Screening among Older Adults: U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2017-2019.
Annals of the American Thoracic Society
2021
Type 2 Diabetes and association with neuropathological changes and domain specific cognitive decline
Alzheimers & Dementia
2021
The association between cognitive impairment and breast and colorectal cancer screening utilization.
BMC cancer
2021
Association between Body Mass Index and Immune-Related Adverse Events (irAEs) among Advanced-Stage Cancer Patients Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: A Pan-Cancer Analysis.
Cancers
2021
Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of chewing tobacco use in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
The Lancet. Public health
2021
Self-rated health in relation to fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity among older cancer survivors.
Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
2021
Measuring routine childhood vaccination coverage in 204 countries and territories, 1980-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2020, Release 1
Lancet
2021
Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Lancet (London, England)
2021
Incorporating health equity into value assessment: frameworks, promising alternatives, and future directions
Journal Of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy
2021
Immunotherapy Utilization Among Patients With Metastatic NSCLC: Impact of Comorbidities.
Journal of immunotherapy (Hagerstown, Md. : 1997)
2021
Global, regional, and national burden of respiratory tract cancers and associated risk factors from 1990 to 2019 a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
Lancet Respiratory Medicine
2021
Function-related Indicators and Outcomes of Screening Mammography in Older Women: Evidence from the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium Cohort.
Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology
2021
Inflammation in Relation to Sarcopenia and Sarcopenic Obesity among Older Adults Living with Chronic Comorbidities: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2006.
Nutrients
2020
Author Correction: Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017.
Nature medicine
2020
Five insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Lancet (London, England)
2020
Global age-sex-specific fertility, mortality, healthy life expectancy (HALE), and population estimates in 204 countries and territories, 1950-2019: a comprehensive demographic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Lancet (London, England)
2020
Global burden of 87 risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.
Lancet (London, England)
2020
Is education or income associated with insufficient fruit and vegetable intake among cancer survivors? A cross-sectional analysis of 2017 BRFSS data.
BMJ open
2020
Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017.
Nature medicine
2020
The global, regional, and national burden of stomach cancer in 195 countries, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease study 2017.
The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology

Grants:

Jul 2023 ACTIVE
Advancing Precision Lung Cancer Surveillance and Outcomes in Diverse Populations (PLuS2)
NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator

Jun 2023 ACTIVE
UF Health Cancer Center Support Grant
NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Other

Jul 2022 – Jun 2023
Risk of adverse cardiovascular events in breast cancer patients receiving systemic adjuvant therapy: impact of comorbidity burden
FL BREAST CANCER FOU · Principal Investigator

Jun 2022 ACTIVE
University of Florida Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
NATL INST OF HLTH NIA · Other

Sep 2021 – Dec 2022
Comorbidity and Screening Outcomes Among Older Women Undergoing Mammography
NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator

Jun 2021 ACTIVE
Personalized screening for lung cancer: the importance of co-existing chronic conditions to clinical practice and policy
NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Principal Investigator

Jan 2020 ACTIVE
The benefits and harms of lung cancer screening in Florida
NATL INST OF HLTH NCI · Co-Investigator

Education:

2017-2021
Fellow, Epidemiology and Public Health
Royal Society of Medicine
2006-2008
Cancer Prevention Fellow
American Society of Preventive Oncology/Prevent Cancer Foundation
2006-2007
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Health and Community
University of California, San Francisco
2004-2007
Postdoctoral Fellow in Cancer Epidemiology
Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco
2004-2006
Postdoctoral Fellow in Health Services Research, Institute for Health Policy Studies
University of California, San Francisco
2000-2004
Fellow in Health Outcomes Research
Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, England and Cancer Research
2000-2004
Ph.D., Epidemiology
University of Cambridge, Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Clinical Medicine, England
1998-1999
M.Sc. (high honors), Public Health
University College London/Kings College, England
1995-1998
B.Sc. (high honors), Psychology and Psychobiology
London Guildhall University, England

Full Profile

Stephanie Staras Ph.D.

Associate Chair Of Faculty Development And Associate Professor

Department: MD-HOBI-GENERAL

Phone: (352) 294-8299

Email: sstaras@mail.ufl.edu