Isabel dos Santos Silva MD MSc PhD

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Background

After completing my medical degree in Lisbon (Portugal), I joined the School in 1989 to work on several cancer-related projects.

Teaching

I teach in a large number of in-house MSc courses including the MSc Epidemiology. I was co-responsible for the development of teaching material for a large number of study units of the distance learning MSc course "Epidemiology: Principles and Practice". I have organised and taught in a large number of courses overseas including various international courses on cancer epidemiology organised by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). I wrote a textbook on cancer epidemiology which has been translated into French and Spanish. I have also supervised several PhD students.

Research

I co-direct (jointly with Julian Peto) the Cancer Research UK Genetics and Epidemiology Group. Most of our current research includes studies on the pre-natal and early-life origins of breast cancer; various prospective studies on endogenous levels of female sex hormones and growth factors and their relation to mammographic density and subsequent risk of breast cancer; association studies aimed at identifying new low-penetrance breast cancer susceptibility alleles; studies on the health effects of exposure to ionising and non-ionising radiation; and large-population-based cohort studies on human papillomavirus (HPV) and risk of cervical cancer. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Porto, we have set up a large family-based birth cohort in the north of Portugal.

Selected publications

• McCormack, V.A.; dos Santos Silva, I.; Breast Density and Parenchymal Patterns as Markers of Breast Cancer Risk: A Meta-analysis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev, 2006; 15(6):1159-69
• de Stavola, B. L.; Dos Santos Silva, I.; McCormack, V.; Hardy, R. J.; Kuh, D. J.; Wadsworth, M. E. Childhood growth and breast cancer American Journal of Epidemiology, 2004; 159(7):671-82
• McCormack, V. A.; Dos Santos Silva, I.; de Stavola, B. L.; Mohsen, R.; Leon, D. A.; Lithell, H. O. Fetal growth and subsequent risk of breast cancer: results from long term follow up of Swedish cohort British Medical Journal, 2003; 326(7383):248-253
• Gibson, L.J.; Peto, J.; Warren, J.M.; Dos Santos Silva, I; Lack of evidence on diets for obesity for children: a systematic review. Int J Epidemiol, 2006; 35(6):1544-52
• Fletcher, O.; Johnson, N.; Palles, C.; Dos Santos Silva, I.; McCormack, V.; Whittaker, J.; Ashworth, A.; Peto, J. Inconsistent association between the STK15 f31I genetic polymorphism and breast cancer risk Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2006; 98(14):1014-1018
• Johnson, N.; Fletcher, O.; Naceur-Lombardelli, C.; Dos Santos Silva, I. D.; Ashworth, A.; Peto, J. Interaction between CHEK2*1100delC and other low-penetrance breast-cancer susceptibility genes: a familial study Lancet, 2005; 366(9496):1554-7
• Swerdlow, A.J.; Dos Santos Silva, I.; Doll, R. Cancer Incidence and Mortality in England and Wales: Trends and Risk Factors Oxford University Press (Oxford) 2001
• Walker, K.; Fletcher, O.; Johnson, N.; Coupland, B.; McCormack, V.A.; Folkerd, E.; Gibson, L.; Hillier, S.G.; Holly, J.M.; Moss, S.; Dowsett, M.; Peto, J.; dos Santos Silva, I.; Premenopausal mammographic density in relation to cyclic variations in endogenous sex hormone levels, prolactin, and insulin-like growth factors. Cancer Res, 2009; 69(16):6490-9

Full publications listing (since 2001)