School of Public Health News

(Updated 03-26-08) Edgar P. Simard, MPH, a PhD candidate in Epidemiology on the Newark Campus of the UMDNJ-School of Public Health, has been appointed to a Cancer Research Training Award predoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch.

During this two- year research appointment, Edgar will conduct his dissertation research on HIV/AIDS-related malignancies.

Part of Edgar's dissertation research will be to analyze HIV/AIDS and cancer registry data from 6 U.S. states and 5 metropolitan areas which were linked using a probabilistic matching algorithm. In the era of highly active antiretroviral treatment for HIV, long durations on treatment as well as increased patient survival may lead to changes in cancer risks over time among persons infected with HIV.

Under the direction of Dr. Patricia Fleming, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and professor of Epidemiology, UMDNJ-School of Public Health Newark Campus; and Dr. Eric Engels, Senior Investigator, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Edgar will evaluate the spectrum of cancer risk late after AIDS diagnosis. He will join a research team at NIH which is internationally known for their contributions describing cancers associated with viral infections, especially HIV/AIDS-malignancies, non-AIDS lymphomas, kaposi sarcoma and KS herpesvirus infections and human papillomavirus-associated cancers.

Edgar's prior research on viral hepatitis infections at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, his knowledge of public health surveillance systems and interest in HIV-related malignancies made him an ideal match for this prestigious research fellowship.

(March 2008)