Faculty

Polly A. Newcomb

Research Professor Emeritus, Epidemiology

206-667-3476

Education

PhD Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1986
MPH Epidemiology, University of Washington, 1982

Contact

206-667-3476

Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Box 358080 (M4-B402)
1100 Fairview Avenue N., M4-B402
Seattle, WA 98109

Research Areas

Research Interests

My interests are the identification of modifiable risk factors for common cancers--colorectal, breast, and endometrium. Increasingly, my work has focused on better characterizing individuals at risk because of the joint presentation of environmental and genetic factors. Over the past 20 years, I have conducted several large population based case-control studies of cancer etiology. Cases enrolled in these studies now form the basis for cohorts to examine factors associated with survivorship. I am also interested in the observational evaluations of screening efficacy.

Recent Publications (PubMed)

Genomic characterization of colorectal tumors: insights into significantly mutated genes, pathways, and survival outcomes.
(2025 Dec 18)
BMC Cancer
Harrison TA, Zaidi SH, Yin H, Steinfelder RS, Qu C, Aglago EK, Berndt SI, Boardman LA, Brenner H, Buchanan DD, Campbell PT, Cao Y, Chan AT, Chanock SJ, Doheny KF, Drew DA, Figueiredo JC, French AJ, Gallinger S, Georgeson P, Giannakis M, Goode EL, Gruber SB, Gsur A, Gunter MJ, Harlid S, Hoffmeister M, Huang WY, Hullar MA, Huyghe JR, Jenkins MA, Lin Y, Moreno V, Murphy N, Newcomb PA, Newton CC, Nowak JA, Obón-Santacana M, Ogino S, Shelford T, Song M, Thomas CE, Toland AE, Ugai T, Um CY, Van Guelpen B, Trinh QM, Sun W, Hudson TJ, Hsu L, Peters U, Phipps AI

Multiple polygenic score approach in colorectal cancer risk prediction.
(2025 Oct 30)
Sci Rep 15(1): 38006
Jiang SJ, Thomas M, Rosenthal EA, Phipps AI, Sakoda LC, van Duijnhoven FJB, Pellatt AJ, Avery CL, Berndt SI, Bishop DT, Castellví-Bel S, Chan AT, Grant RC, Gignoux C, Gsur A, Gunter MJ, Haiman CA, Hoffmeister M, Jarvik GP, Jenkins MA, Keku TO, Küry S, Lee JK, Marchand LL, Moreno V, Newcomb PA, Newton CC, Ogino S, Palmer JR, Pearlman R, Qu C, Schoen RE, Um CY, Van Guelpen B, Visvanathan K, Vymetalkova V, White E, Woods MO, Platz EA, Brenner H, Corley DA, Vogelaar IL, Hsu L, Peters U

Red meat intake interacts with a TGF-β-pathway-based polygenic risk score to impact colorectal cancer risk: Application of a novel approach for polygenic risk score construction.
(2025 Jun 16)
medRxiv
Mendez JS, Queme B, Fu Y, Morrison J, Lewinger JP, Kawaguchi E, Mi H, Obón-Santacana M, Moratalla-Navarro F, Martín V, Moreno V, Lin Y, Bien SA, Qu C, Su YR, White E, Harrison TA, Huyghe JR, Tangen CM, Newcomb PA, Phipps AI, Thomas CE, Conti DV, Wang J, Platz EA, Keku TO, Newton CC, Um CY, Kundaje A, Shcherbina A, Murphy N, Gunter MJ, Dimou N, Papadimitriou N, Bézieau S, van Duijnhoven FJ, Männistö S, Rennert G, Wolk A, Hoffmeister M, Brenner H, Chang-Claude J, Tian Y, Le Marchand L, Cotterchio M, Tsilidis KK, Bishop DT, Melaku YA, Lynch BM, Buchanan DD, Ulrich CM, Ose J, Peoples AR, Pellatt AJ, Li L, Devall MA, Campbell PT, Albanes D, Weinstein SJ, Berndt SI, Gruber SB, Ruiz-Narvaez E, Song M, Joshi AD, Drew DA, Petrick JL, Chan AT, Giannakis M, Hsu L, Peters U, Gauderman WJ, Stern MC

Fusobacterium nucleatum Enrichment in Colorectal Tumor Tissue: Associations With Tumor Characteristics and Survival Outcomes.
(2025)
Gastro Hep Adv 4(6): 100644
Phipps AI, Hill CM, Lin G, Malen RC, Reedy AM, Kahsai O, Ammar H, Curtis K, Ma N, Randolph TW, Ma J, Ogino S, Newcomb PA, Hullar MA

Highly Sensitive DNA Testing of Fusobacterium nucleatum in Colorectal Tumors.
(2025 Aug 1)
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 34(8): 1377-1385
Hullar MAJ, Kahsai OJ, Hill C, Levy L, Malen RC, Curtis KR, Ammar H, Sillah A, Reedy AM, Lampe JW, Ogino S, Potter JD, Newcomb PA, Phipps AI

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