NCI grants $12.1 million for USC center to study obesity ...( sociate director of the USC TREC Center...),Health

"We know that being overweight or obese raises risk for several types of cancer-including breast, kidney, colon, esophageal and endometrial cancers-and that physical activity reduces risk of some cancers," Bernstein says. "By focusing on children, we hope to learn how to impact obesity early in life by increasing physical activity and changing environmental factors, and to uncover some of the biological mechanisms that link obesity and physical activity to cancer risk."

The USC TREC research program focuses on children because obese children frequently become obese adults. Over the past two decades, the percentage of overweight teens in the United States has tripled-from 5 percent to 16 percent. And certain ethnic groups are more vulnerable to obesity than others; today, experts estimate that 44 percent of Latino and 40 percent of African-American teenagers are considered overweight, about double the prevalence among Caucasian children.

"We are thrilled to be selected as one of four sites across the nation to conduct this research," says Keck School Dean Brian E. Henderson, M.D., the Kenneth T. Norris Jr. Chair in Cancer Research. "The center reflects the transdisciplinary research we intend to foster here-research that improves public health, from cancer to metabolic diseases."

Keck School scientists will lead three inter-related projects:

• Examining cancer-related metabolic risk factors in overweight African-American and Latino teens and the use of strength training as a way to improve them.

• Finding the physiological and psychosocial reasons that African-American and Latino girls slow or halt their physical activity in their teens.

• Understanding how
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