Learn how to apply computational modeling techniques to tobacco regulatory science in a one-week summer course taught by CAsToR instructors at the University of Michigan. Scholarships available! tcors.umich.edu/Resource_SSE...

CAsToR is hosting a webinar “Working with state & local tobacco legislative data: A primer” on Feb 12 with Dr. Abigail Friedman, Dr. Holly Jarman, and Lauren Tonti, JD, MPH. Register here: myumi.ch/qZ4WE

INTS core faculty member and assistant professor, Lauren Pacek, will discuss tobacco use and cessation and harm reduction strategies among people with HIV in the USA in the webinar hosted by the AETC Program on November 5, 11 am ET. Register here ➡️ www.e2neca.org/org/AETC/Por...

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, causing approximately 1.8 million deaths in 2022. 📝 This Review discusses the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of lung cancer in nonsmoking individuals. ja.ma/4hk9v9F

💬 Perspective: The evaluation of moderate alcohol consumption on health is complex due to known harms of heavy drinking, potential benefits of low consumption, varying evidence quality, and biases. ja.ma/3KIU12Q

INTS Associate Professor, Jamie Tam, comments on a recent story about how the tobacco industry is fighting proposed nicotine cuts in its products. Read more ➡️ news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...

Two new preprints on multilevel HMMs! Time series data is now pervasive in psychology and new methods are needed to model the dynamics in such data. Hidden Markov Models (HHMs) are powerful models for dynamics in which a system is switching between a number of discrete states.

Please join us in welcoming our new faculty member, Rafael Meza, PhD! @rutgerscancer.bsky.social @rwjms.bsky.social Learn more about Dr. Meza here: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

CAsToR junior investigator and pilot project PI, Dr. Clinton Durney, describes his research project modeling social network influences on teenage nicotine use. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIBO...

In this modeling study, biennial screening from ages 50 to 60, then annually, was estimated to maintain 96% of the deaths prevented by lung cancer screening while decreasing CT scans by 21%. ja.ma/45hXpt1

CAsToR is hosting a webinar "A COPD Natural History Simulation Model for Tobacco Regulation Evaluation: Policy Implications" with Dr. Luz Sanchez Romero on October 9. Register here: myumi.ch/9pqbJ

This article provides an overview of the current state of handling continuous variables in healthcare research. It discusses the potential limitations of assuming a linear relationship between independent and dependent variables www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Worth a read. We need to move beyond arbitrary categorisation of continuous variables or assuming that associations are linear - and use more flexible modelling approaches to capture non-linear relationships. www.bmj.com/content/390/...

CAsToR junior investigator and pilot project PI, Dr. Mona Issabakhsh, describes her project, “A Machine Learning Approach to Cluster Similar Flavors of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems,” sharing initial results and their implications for her research approach. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhh5...

IARC and American Cancer Society Launch The Cancer Atlas, Fourth Edition oncodaily.com/blog/the-can... #OncoDaily #Oncology #Cancer #Health #Medicine #MedEd #MedOnc #MedNews #IARC #ACS

CAsToR Pilot PI, Dr. Dae-Hee Han, shares his progress on his work that uses inverse probability weighting and machine learning to estimate the impact of oral nicotine product and inhaled tobacco product co-use on inhaled tobacco product use trajectories among youth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kaw...

Reducing Lung Cancer Mortality by Providing Smoking Cessation Support in the Lung Cancer Screening Setting: Missed Opportunities and Lessons Learned on Both Sides of the Atlantic - Journal of Thoracic Oncology www.jto.org/article/S155...

Dr. Nancy Jao gives an update on her CAsToR Pilot Project, “Impact of flavored e-cigarette use and nicotine metabolism on systemic inflammatory biomarkers of cardiovascular disease risk.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=g39-...

Modelling study by Victoria Salgado et al. indicates further tobacco control interventions in Argentina could considerably reduce premature deaths and years of life lost. academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-...

RFK Jr. wants to Make America Healthy Again. But he's ignoring the country's leading cause of preventable deaths: smoking.

Out now April Let's talk #e-cigarettes podcast @jhb19.bsky.social & @drnlindson.bsky.social interview Steve Cook @umichsph.bsky.social CaSToR TCORS re probs using cross-sectional data to look at health effects of #vapes Thanks @cancerresearchuk.org Spotify & iTunes podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/lets-...

There's still time to register! ⏰ 2025 ESIL awardee, Dr. Julia Chen-Sankey, will deliver her lecture in the second of three NIH ODP Early Stage Investigator Lectures of 2025 on June 5 at 10 a.m. ET. ➡️ ow.ly/MLwI50VUboR @rutgerssph.bsky.social

Meet CAsToR Postdoctoral Fellow and Pilot PI, Dr. Clinton Durney. Clinton uses computational modeling to understand tobacco use behaviors and potential policy impacts. For his pilot project, he is modeling the spread of tobacco use through adolescent social networks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR_v...

“Cohort life expectancy in the South, especially among females, changed little for those born from 1900 to 2000. For several states in the West and Northeast, cohort life expectancy improved substantially, and Washington DC, exhibited the greatest improvement” #medsky jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

792 smokers were randomized to (a) placebo (b) 6 weeks cytisinicline or (c) 12 weeks cytisinicline. % abstinent from smoking for weeks 9-24 (and CO<10ppm) was (a) 4.2% (b) 12.2% and (c) 20.5%. Cytisinicline is safe and effective for smoking cessation. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40257755/

Check out this new video recording of a primer on systematic reviews and evidence synthesis in TRS, facilitated by CAsToR investigators Drs. Hartmann-Boyce and Livingstone-Banks. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAfd...

Why the FDA is right about Zyn. "It may seem like authorizing another nicotine product- especially one with its own youthful cultural cachet- is a risky decision. But when evaluating all the factors (e g 2.4% youth use after 10y), it actually makes sense." www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

📢 #episky #mortality #opendata Weekly death series #STMF revised and updated ☑️ Data 👉 mortality.org/Data/STMF Check out our visualization toolkit to explore data on weekly mortality and #excessmortality across years and countries ⬇️ mpidr.shinyapps.io/stmortality/

🧬 Did you know? CanPath offers genotyping data from 55K+ participants, enriched with single nucleotide polymorphisms linked to diseases & ethnicities. Combine it with data from 13+ centres via HDRN Canada’s DASH to study genetics & health ❤️‍🩹 Let’s connect! #Genomics #HealthResearch

"An evaluation of a recent meta-analysis of 107 studies (Glantz 24) indicated that in many cases, the precision and accuracy of results may be overstated due to inherent confounding.. not accounted for." This paper is a must-read for aspiring epidemiologists! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Did you know that @centertobacco.bsky.social has a robust YouTube channel? This playlist of a workshop on analysis of trends & transitions in tobacco research includes lectures on joinpoint regression and age-period-cohort modeling, among others. youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The percentage of U.S. adults who currently used #ecigs increased from 4.5% in 2019 to 6.5% in 2023. Ecig use was much higher among those aged under 50. stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/174...

🔬 Want hands-on experience analyzing population health data? Join our free in-person workshop at @uoft.bsky.social! Learn R & Python workflows, work with CanPath’s Synthetic Dataset, and explore cloud-based tools. 👥 Limited spots – apply now >> canpath.ca/2025/03/synt...

CAsToR is hosting an online training on March 20, “Systematic reviews and other types of evidence synthesis in TRS: a primer,” facilitated by Drs. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce @jhb19.bsky.social and Jonathan Livingstone-Banks @jlivbanks.bsky.social Open to CTP-funded scientists. Register: myumi.ch/bE9xk

What is the biggest misconception about vaping?

In Michigan, the infant mortality rate in 2022 was more than two times higher for Black non-Hispanic mothers than for white mothers, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The HPV vaccine is amazing. “The new report found that from 2008 to 2022, rates for precancerous lesions decreased about 80% among 20- to 24-year-old women who were screened for cervical cancer. The estimates were published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Can #ecigs / #vapes help you to #quitsmoking? Are they safe for quitting? See our plain language briefing w/ Feb 2025 search update & findings from Jan 2024 living Cochrane review @cochranetag.bsky.social @oxfordtag.bsky.social Thanks to @cancerresearchuk.org www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/ele...

We conducted an overview of reviews on the impacts of e-cigarette flavours. Non-tobacco flavours may increase appeal & harms; this may vary by flavour & apply across different populations. Impacts of flavours on e-cig and cigarette use are inconclusive. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

New paper by J Livingstone-Banks‬⁩ et al finds non-tobacco flavourings for e-cigs may increase appeal and harms; this increase may vary by flavour and apply across different population groups. Impacts of e-cig flavours on e-cig and cig use are inconclusive. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#TobRegSky #PedSky #MedSky #EpiSky #addictionsci #policysky #polisky #PCCM 🧪🛟 Great investigative journalism by Emma Rumney of @reuters.com on the network of e-cigarette manufacturers and shell companies fueling the illegal market of disposable ecigs in the US. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Today marks 3 years since Russia invaded #Ukraine 🇺🇦 ♦️Millions remain displaced. ♦️Countless lives lost. ♦️Thousands of attacks on health care. WHO & its partners continue to support urgent health needs - mental health support, trauma care, rehabilitation, rebuilding & strengthening the health system.

Ovarian Cancer: Symptoms, Causes, Stages, Diagnosis and Treatment🎗️ Ovarian cancer affects thousands of women each year, with an estimated 20,890 new cases and 12,730 deaths in the U.S. in 2025. The lifetime risk of developing ovarian cancer is 1 in 91. Early detection is key!

CAsToR is committed to supporting junior investigators in developing their tobacco modeling skills. Meet just one of our many junior researchers, Ke “Vicky” Xu, as she shares a bit about her tobacco modeling research interests. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOCG...

🌍 It’s World Cancer Day! Let’s unite to advance lung cancer research & care. 🚨 WCLC 2025 registration & abstract submissions are OPEN! 📍 Barcelona | Sept 6–9, 2025 Be part of the future of lung cancer care. Register now! 🔗 bit.ly/IASLCWCLC #WCLC25 #WorldCancerDay

"Cuts to the HHS workforce have the potential to dismantle the critical government infrastructure that has played a pivotal role in cancer survivorship for 18 million individuals who are alive today in the U.S. resulting in more suffering from cancer nationwide." - @llacasseacscan.bsky.social

CAsToR’s 2024-2025 Pilot Project Program grantees were announced in September. Congratulations again to these junior investigators; we look forward to following your work! Read about their projects: tcors.umich.edu/Pilot.php

The AACR is deeply concerned that the Administration’s recent actions are threatening NIH and its mission to accelerate progress for patients with cancer and other diseases that afflict millions of Americans. Read our statement: https://buff.ly/4gRXNB8

The greats!