Biography
Professor Amy Berrington originally trained in mathematics and applied statistics and then received a DPhil in Cancer Epidemiology from the University of Oxford in 2001. After completing her postdoctoral research in Professor Valerie Beral’s department at the University of Oxford she moved to the US in 2005 to take up a position as an Assistant Professor in Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
She joined the Radiation Epidemiology Branch at the US National Cancer Institute in 2008, was awarded scientific tenure as a Senior Investigator in 2011 and promoted to Branch Chief in 2014. Professor Berrington joined the ICR in 2022 as Group Leader in Clinical Cancer Epidemiology.
Professor Berrington specialises in using real world data to quantify the late-effects from cancer treatments, medical radiation exposures and other medications. She has led several large-scale electronic record linkage studies including a cohort study of breast cancer survivors, the UK Pediatric CT scan cohort and the first multi-center study comparing proton therapy to photon therapy for childhood cancer treatment.
She has a particular interest in the epidemiological methods that underpin the use of real world data and is co-editor of a forthcoming book on these methods for bias assessment. Since joining ICR she has become the Principal Investigator for the Generations Study.
Professor Berrington is the Vice-Chair of the National Academy of Science Nuclear and Radiation Studies, the founding President of the International Society for Radiation Epidemiology and Dosimetry (ISORED) and has served on many national and international radiation and cancer epidemiology advisory boards and review committees. She previously served on the editorial board for the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Selected publications
Vo J, Ramin C, Lene H.S. Veiga LHS, Brandt C, Curtis R, Bodelon C, Barac C, Roger V, Feigelson HS…Berrington de González A. Association of initial chemotherapy receipt and long-term risk of major and cause-specific cardiovascular disease among US breast cancer survivors, 1993-2017. J Natl Cancer Inst (2024).
Shiels MS, Lipkowitz S, Campos N, Schiffman M, Schiller J, Freedman N, Berrington de González A. Opportunities for Achieving the Cancer Moonshot Goal of a 50% Reduction in Cancer Mortality by 2047. Cancer Discoveries (2023).
Veiga L, Vo J, Curtis R, Mille M, Lee C, Ramin C, Bodelon C, Bowles E, Buist D, Weinmann S, Feigelson H, Gierach G, Berrington de Gonzalez A. Treatment-related thoracic soft tissue sarcomas in two US cohorts of breast cancer survivors. Lancet Oncology (2022).
Yaegar M, Machiela MJ, Kothiyal P, Dean M, Bodelon C, Suman A, Wang M, Mirabello L, Nelson C…Berrington de Gonzalez A, Chanock SJ. Lack of transgenerational effects of ionizing radiation exposure in cleanup workers and evacuees of the Chernobyl accident. Science (2021).
Veiga LH, Curtis R, Morton LM, Withrow DR, Howell R, Smith S, Weathers R, Oeffinger K, Moskowitz CS, Henderson T, Arnold M…Berrington de Gonzalez A. Breast cancer risk after childhood cancer according to radiation dose to the breast and anthracyclines: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. JAMA Pediatrics (2019).
Withrow DR, Morton LM, Berrington de González A. Risk of ER+ and ER- breast cancer after treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. JAMA Oncology (2018).
Gierach GL, Curtis RE, Pfeiffer RM, Mullooly M, Ntowe E, Hoover RN, Nyante SJ, Feigelson HS, Glass AG, Berrington de Gonzalez A. Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy and Risk of Contralateral Breast Cancer among a Cohort of U.S. Women with Breast Cancer. JAMA Oncology (2017).
Journy N, Morton LM, Kleinerman R, Bekelman JE, Berrington de Gonzalez A. Risk of second primary cancers after IMRT versus 3D-CRT for treatment of prostate cancer: a cohort study based on US SEER-Medicare data. JAMA Oncology (2016).
Pearce MS, Salotti JA, Little MP, McHugh K, Lee C, Kim KP, Howe NL, Ronckers CM, Rajaraman R, Craft AW, Parker L, Berrington de González A. Radiation exposures from CT scans in childhood and subsequent risk of leukemia and brain tumors. Lancet (2012).
Berrington de González A, Curtis RE, Kry SF, Gilbert E, Lamart S, Berg CD, Stovall M, Ron E. Proportion of second cancers attributable to radiotherapy treatment in adults: a cohort study in the US SEER cancer registries. Lancet Oncology (2011).
Berrington de González A, Hartge P, Cerhan JR, Flint AJ, Hannan L, MacInnis RJ, Moore SC, Tobias GS, Anton-Culver H, Freeman LB, Beeson WL…Thun MJ. Body-mass index and mortality among 1.46 million white adults. N Engl J Med (2010).
Berrington de González A, Mahesh M, Kim KP, Bhargavan M, Lewis R, Mettler F, Land C. Projected cancer risks from computed tomographic scans performed in the United States in 2007. Arch Intern Med (2009).
Berrington de González A, Darby S. Risk of cancer from diagnostic X-rays: estimates for the UK and 14 other countries. Lancet (2004).