"We know that childhood trauma increases your risk for cancer by the same way we know that smoking increases your risk for lung cancer. The epidemiology is predictive on a population level, but not an individual level. 9 out of 10 people in a room of smokers will get lung cancer in their lifetime. Though we can't name which of the 10 will get lung cancer, we know statistically that 9 of 10 will."
"An understanding of childhood trauma's relation to cancer during adulthood will transform how we prevent and treat cancer in the next hundred years."
David H. Nguyen, PhD
2012
David H. Nguyen, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Tissue Spatial Geometrics Laboratory
Founder & CEO
Chair - Environmental & Medical Fallout Task Force
Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Disaster of 2015
Email: david.hh.n@gmail.com
In 2012, Dr. Nguyen predicted that childhood trauma would eventually lead to a higher risk for cancer. He started Cancer InCytes Magazine based on this premise. Starting a year later, several different research groups independently confirmed the prediction. More studies will continue to be published.
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Monique Brown et al. "Association Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Diagnosis of Cancer." PLoS ONE 2013, 8(6): e65524.
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Kelly-Irving et al. "Childhood Adversity as a Risk for Cancer: Findings from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study." BMC Public Health 2013, 13:767.
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Maria Llabre et al. "Childhood Trauma and Adult Risk Factors and Disease in Hispanics/Latinos in the US." Psychosomatic Medicine 2017, 79: 172-180.
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Bruna Amélia M Sarafim-Silva et al. "Childhood Trauma Is Predictive for Clinical Staging, Alcohol Consumption, and Emotional Symptoms in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer." Cancer 2018, 124(18):3684-3692.
About
Dave is a tumor biologist with an interest (an odd, extreme hobby) in why childhood trauma increases a person's risk of having cancer during adulthood. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Cancer InCytes Magazine, a public health e-magazine that discusses the healthcare challenges facing disadvantaged populations. Dave obtained his B.A. and Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley.
Areas of Interest
Biomedical Science
-Algorithms for quantifying order and disorder in tumors.
-A unifying equation for characterizing tumor histopathology via image analysis.
-Immune and hormonal mechanisms linking childhood trauma and the risk for developing cancer during adulthood.
Education
-Bridging the education inequality gap.
-College admissions.
-Education & society.
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Educational and academic resources on the study of human trafficking:
Journals
-Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence
Research & Training Centers
-Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, in collaboration with the White House, has started a program to study various aspects of human trafficking.
-Quinnipiac University School of Nursing has also started efforts to study and train health professionals about human trafficking.
-The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has had an ongoing conference on various aspects of human trafficking.
-The University of Southern California has it's own program on technology and human trafficking.
-Massachusetts General Hospital has a program that studies medical needs of human trafficking victims, while producing educational materials on this matter for healthcare professionals.
-Physicians Against the Trafficking of Humans (PATH) trains physicians about human trafficking.
-American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) trains physicians about human trafficking and hosts conferences about human trafficking.
-Catholic Health Initiatives has a free online curriculum about identifying trafficking victims in the health care system.
-Center for Combating Human Trafficking at Wichita State University
-Human Trafficking Clinical Program at University of Michigan School of Law
-School of Social Work at the University of Alabama
-Human Trafficking Program at Ben Taub Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine