Brief Introduction to Professor Gao Yu-Tang

Professor Gao Yu-Tang (Senior investigator) was born in November 1932. He is a senior investigator of the Cancer Institute, Shanghai Jiaotong University. His current positions are chairman of Academic Committee and chief of Department of Epidemiology, Cancer Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University as well as director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on Cancer.

He was graduated from Harbin Medical University in 1955. During 1979-1980 he got a fellowship at International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France to learn advanced knowledge in Cancer Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Returning back to China, he actively participated in international collaborative studies on cancer epidemiology, and repeatedly joined teaching faculties for international training courses on cancer epidemiology. He was invited to be a member of editorial board or advisor of four foreign cancer journals. Now he is an active member of American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Professor Gao engaged in research in the field of cancer epidemiology and medical statistics for several decades. Since the beginning of 1980s he himself organized a number of large scale epidemiologic studies on cancer in China, including a multi-center study on lung cancer conducted in several cities. These studies covered cancers commonly seen in Shanghai or with rapid increase in their incidence rates such as cancers of the lung, stomach, esophagus, colon, rectum, breast, ovary, endometrium, pancreas, bladder, prostate, biliary tract, leukemia etc., among which a series of epidemiologic studies on lung cancer was the National Key Research Project during “Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Five” periods. In addition to population-based case-control studies on cancers he was also responsible for organization of several large scale cohort studies such as male cohort study involving 18 thousand men aged 45 and over at recruitment with collection of serum and urine samples in Shanghai urban in the middle of 1980s as well as a prospective cohort study on association of tobacco smoking, air pollution with cancer and related chronic diseases with involvement of 210 thousand adult residents in Shanghai. The synergistic effect of both HBsAg positive and aflatoxin intake on liver cancer found in the former cohort study by use of molecular biomarker was influential internationally. Recently, another female cohort with involvement of 750 thousand study subjects was established in Shanghai urban, follow-up of the subjects now is on-going. In addition to analytical epidemiologic studies Professor Gao also did great contribution in cancer descriptive epidemiology, cancer registration and medical statistics, and actively promoted and supported progress in research on cancer control in Shanghai as well as in China.

He was awarded prizes of grade 1, 2 and 3 from National Committee of Science and Technology, Ministry of Health and Shanghai Municipal Committee of Science and Technology for his excellent contribution in some of the above-mentioned studies. He published more than 130 scientific papers in China and abroad in the capacity of first author, correspondent author or collaborator, the results of some papers were frequently cited abroad. He was frequently invited by cancer research institutions within China and abroad to participate in scientific symposiums and workshops, and has good and friendly relation with some famous research institutions and individuals abroad. Currently he is the chief editor of the Journal “Tumor”; besides, also the member of editorial board of several cancer journals in China. He was elected as the present director of the specialized committee of Cancer Epidemiology, Chinese Anti-Cancer Association. Professor Gao Yu-Tang is a well-known cancer epidemiologist not only within China, but also abroad.