Eugenia Calle

Eugenia E. "Jeanne" Calle (January 5, 1952 – February 17, 2009) was an American cancer epidemiologist. Her research examined the links between obesity, diet, and cancer. Additionally she published studies on risk factors for breast and ovarian cancers. She was murdered in her Atlanta condominium in 2009. Early life and education Calle grew up in Fairlawn, Ohio, and attended Copley High School in the 1960s. She received her bachelor's degree in medical communications from Columbia University and her doctoral degree in epidemiology from Ohio State University (Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine).

Academic career Calle worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the area of cancer risk assessment, and later at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the Agent Orange Projects. Calle joined the American Cancer Society (ACS) in 1989 as the director of their Study Management Group. Her research advanced understanding of the risk factors for the use of combined estrogen and progesterone for breast and ovarian cancers, She was also instrumental in developing the ACS Cancer Prevention Studies into major resources for groundbreaking research on air pollution, nutrition, physical activity, medications, and inherited susceptibility genes. She served as a member of the National Cancer Institute's Board of Scientific Counselors, the American Epidemiological Society, an adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, and on the editorial boards of several prominent cancer journals.

Selected works and publications

Calle EE, Rodriguez C, Walker-Thurmond K, Thun MJ. Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults. New England Journal of Medicine. 2003;348(17):1625-38. Calle EE, Feigelson HS, Hildebrand JS, Teras LR, Thun MJ, Rodriguez C. Postmenopausal hormone use and breast cancer associations differ by hormone regimen and histologic subtype. Cancer. 2009 Mar 1;115(5):936-45. doi: 10.1002/cncr.24101.