Second-year MPH students at the Brown University School of Public Health are actively engaged in internships and projects through the MPH Practicum program. These opportunities lead them to diverse agencies and organizations in Rhode Island and across the globe. Our Student Spotlight series this summer follows their stories.
Nearly one-third of all the world’s smokers reside in China, where more than half of all adult men are tobacco smokers. MPH student Yuchan Cao has been intrigued by the complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors shaping China's consistently high smoking rate since her undergraduate studies in public health.
According to Yuchan, "the cultural, societal, and stress-related influences that lead to surging smoking prevalence in China provide a unique context for such research.”
This summer, for her MPH Practicum experience, Yuchan took on a role investigating the patterns between smoking and cancer progression among lung cancer survivors in China. As a research assistant at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, her daily responsibilities involved managing, analyzing and interpreting the genetic data of Chinese lung cancer survivors. She deciphered genomic patterns to explore the link between smoking behavior and cancer susceptibility.
"Our study aims to investigate the association between gene alterations and disease susceptibility, with a specific emphasis on lung cancer, by conducting a comparative analysis between individuals who smoke and those who do not," Yuchan said.
“It has provided new insights into the multifaceted aspects of smoking behavior and its consequences, potentially contributing to more effective strategies for lung cancer prevention not only in China, but also in other regions facing similar challenges," she said.
