Research Focus Areas
The Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) research program at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center leads innovative research across the cancer continuum—from prevention and early detection to survivorship. Through multidisciplinary collaboration and community partnership, CPC researchers address the most urgent cancer risks affecting Nebraska and beyond.
Members of the program explore a wide range of scientific questions, from biological mechanisms to community-level interventions:
- Lifestyle Factors
- Environmental Risk Factors
- Early Detection and Prevention Methods
- Rural Health
- Survivorship Research and Patient Outcomes
- Cancer Prevention and Control Clinical Trials
Featured Research Projects
Nebraska faces significant obesity challenges, with 30 rural counties showing obesity rates substantially higher than the national average of 33.4%, reaching up to 49.2% in some areas. The CPC research program addresses this critical cancer risk factor through innovative approaches ranging from molecular mechanisms to community interventions.
Featured Research:
Project: Janos Zempleni, PhD, leads the Nebraska Center for the Prevention of Obesity Diseases through Dietary Molecules (NPOD). A unique center that harnesses bioactive food compounds to prevent and treat obesity. With nearly $200 million in leveraged research funding, the NPOD has produced 1,044 publications and 758 presentations, including intervention studies in rural Hispanic populations in Nebraska and Native Americans in South Dakota.
Project: Kristina Bailey, MD, is collaborating with Translational Cancer Research Program (TCRP) investigators to examine how aging-related changes in a lung protein contribute to increased cancer susceptibility, providing crucial insights into the risk of obesity-related lung cancer.
Project: Alcohol and liver disease research, led by Carol Casey, PhD, and Karuna Rasineni, PhD, investigates how alcohol-induced fatty liver disease creates cancer risk, supported by multiple National Institute of Health (NIH) grants.
With 28 rural and 2 urban Nebraska counties showing significantly higher smoking prevalence than the national average, tobacco control represents a critical priority. The CPC research program employs innovative approaches to understand and combat tobacco-related cancer risks.
Featured Research:
Project: Hongying (Daisy) Dai, PhD, NCI and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded research investigates electronic cigarettes using novel biomarker measurement approaches. Her work, supported by multiple grants and collaboration with the University of Southern California’s Tobacco Center, is finding innovative ways to assess the harms of tobacco products and develop effective cessation strategies.
Project: Rick Bevins, PhD, leads the Rural Drug Addiction Research Center, bringing together neuroscience, psychology, and epidemiology experts to address substance use in rural populations. His additional NIH-funded research examines behavioral and cognitive factors in tobacco use disorders.
Environmental exposures contribute significantly to cancer development, particularly in rural and agricultural communities. The CPC research program investigates how neighborhood environments, occupational exposures, and social determinants influence cancer risk and outcomes.
Featured Research:
Project: Edward S. Peters, DMD, DM, SCD, FACE, leads collaborative research with Rutgers, Emory, and Detroit examining how neighborhood social and physical environments affect ovarian cancer survival outcomes. This NIH-funded work incorporates inflammatory biomarkers to understand the complex relationships between environmental factors and cancer progression.
Early detection saves lives. The CPC research program focuses on developing innovative biomarkers and screening approaches for cancers that disproportionately affect our region, including pancreatic and prostate cancers.
Featured Research:
Project: Surinder K. Batra, PhD, is leading an NIH-funded collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to validate biomarkers for early diagnosis and risk stratification of pancreatic cancer. The team has identified novel serum biomarker panels that could revolutionize pancreatic cancer detection. Their Pancreas panel helps define the malignant risk of pancreatic cysts, moving toward clinical implementation.
Project: Michael (Tony) A. Hollingsworth, PhD, leads the innovative Rapid Autopsy program, which provides high-quality human specimens across disease stages. The program’s high-risk pancreatic cancer cohort study has enrolled over 600 participants to date.
Project: Raymond C. Bergan, MD, and Amar Natarajan, PhD, precision agent trial targets prostate cancer cell motility inhibition, representing an innovative approach to cancer prevention-interception therapy.
Cancer survivorship research focuses on developing supportive interventions for the growing population of cancer survivors, aiming to improve quality of life, manage treatment-related complications, and promote long-term health outcomes.
Featured Research:
Project: Vijaya Raj Bhatt, MBBS, MS, NCI-funded multicenter study represents the first research examining functional outcomes in older adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) treated with venetoclax-based therapy. This 7-center collaboration, now recruiting rural populations through partnership with the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, could encourage older adults to receive potentially life-saving treatment.
Project: Amy J. Hoffman, PhD, RN, FAAN, NCI-funded exercise intervention trial enrolled 192 lung cancer surgery patients across multiple institutions, developing evidence-based approaches to managing cancer-related fatigue through home-based exercise interventions.
Project: So-Youn Kim, PhD, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)-funded oncofertility research investigates protecting ovarian function in female cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, potentially preserving fertility and endocrine health for young cancer survivors.
Rural cancer disparities represent a critical challenge in our catchment area. The Rural Health Research Program investigates these disparities and develops targeted interventions to improve cancer outcomes in rural and frontier communities.
Featured Research:
Project: Jungyoon Kim, PhD, Black Equity, Access, and Testing for Cancer (BEAT) cancer initiative, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, developed an innovative colorectal cancer screening intervention for African American communities. This community-informed approach, recognized with the 2025 American Public Health Association Cancer Equity Award, demonstrates effective strategies for addressing screening disparities.
The CPC clinical trials program translates research discoveries into patient care, with 16 active studies that have accrued 103 patients in the past year, including 41 participants in interventional trials.
Featured Trials:
Project: The δ-tocotrienol Phase II trial, led by Surinder K. Batra, PhD, and Mokenge Malafa, MD (Moffitt), investigates the prevention of Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm (IPMN) progression to pancreatic cancer across three major cancer centers. This bench-to-bedside work could establish a new paradigm for the prevention of pancreatic cancer.
Project: A pilot study led by Kelsey Klute, MD, is investigating chemoprevention with tamoxifen in patients with pre-invasive pancreatic mucinous cystic neoplasms who are not undergoing immediate resection. This preventative clinical trial investigates the feasibility and potential efficacy of oral tamoxifen as a chemopreventive agent in patients with pancreatic mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCN). The study aims to estimate response rates, evaluate safety and toxicity, and assess biomarkers and imaging features to inform a future phase II trial.