Peter McCarron

"With our current emphasis on collaboration between North and South, and on improving public health, there is enormous opportunity to train in cancer epidemiology here in Northern Ireland."

Peter McCarron, MD
Epidemiologist
Northern Ireland Cancer Registry, Belfast

Reflections on My Cancer Epidemiology Fellowship

Though I grew up in Derry, I had never worked in Northern Ireland. I had received my training in Dublin and in other parts of the U.K. I learned about the opportunity to apply for the Consortium's fellowship in cancer epidemiology through the British Medical Journal and jumped on it, thinking it would be a good opportunity to learn more about a growing field and apply my expertise at home.

Until a few years ago, most of my career had been in public health medicine and cardiovascular epidemiology. With the startup of the cancer registries in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the 1990s, there is a great chance to study cancer epidemiology in Ireland. Strengths such as coverage of the whole island and the genetic homogeneity of the population provide potential for contributing to the understanding of cancer etiology and enhancing preventative efforts. For a researcher, the emphasis on collaboration between North and South, and on improving public health, provides enormous opportunity to train in cancer epidemiology here in Northern Ireland.

I applied for the three-year fellowship and within a short period of time found myself at the National Cancer Institute just outside of Washington, D.C. During the first portion of the fellowship, I collaborated with a number of U.S. researchers, analyzing data from a large ongoing cancer study and writing research papers. While at NCI, I also took three courses in biostatistics and one in genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore. In addition, I participated in the six-week summer cancer prevention course taught at NCI, and took a course on the methods used in cancer registration. These courses were all enjoyable and extremely useful, and the biostatistics courses were very challenging, requiring me to revisit mathematical concepts I had long forgotten.

After my time in the States, I am back in Belfast where I am continuing my fellowship. I am currently working with a clinician here on a study of gene-environment interactions in the etiology of melanoma. We are planning to write a grant application, to extend this study by possibly investigating the differing contribution of genetic and environmental factors among people who develop melanoma in the United States and in Ireland. In addition, using unique data on prostate-specific antigen (PSA), I am collaboration with a number of colleagues in Belfast to determine the trends in PSA testing in Northern Ireland, and the outcomes for men undergoing the test. Also, along with my fellow colleague from Ireland, Paul Walsh, who was the main contributor to the recent All-Ireland Cancer Statistics Report, I will likely write a paper on some of the important findings contained in the report.

Perhaps the best part about the fellowship was the contacts I made with population studies experts at NCI. They have been invaluable in designing our research project and offering ongoing advice.