Lynn Rosenberg

Dr. Rosenberg’s research has been in the areas of cancer epidemiology, cardiovascular epidemiology, and drug epidemiology, with an emphasis on women’s health, particularly that of African American women. She has carried out multiple studies of risk factors for cancers, including cancer of the breast, cervix, and colon, and for myocardial infarction. Particular interests have been the health effects of oral and injectable contraceptives and of noncontraceptive estrogens. Several important hypotheses have been raised by her studies: that alcohol consumption increases the incidence of breast cancer and that use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs decreases the incidence of large bowel cancer. Both hypotheses were subsequently confirmed in numerous studies. She is PI of the Black Women’s Health Study, the largest follow-up study of the health of African-American women yet conducted. The study has followed 59,000 black women from across the U.S. since 1995. The study has published over 250 manuscripts on genetic and nongenetic risk factors for breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, uterine fibroids, sarcoidosis, preterm birth, obesity, and mortality.