Eric P. Winer, MD
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
Titles and Affiliations
Director of Yale Cancer Center
Physician-in-Chief, Smilow Cancer Hospital
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut
Member, BCRF Scientific Advisory Board
Research area
Understanding how and when to incorporate lifestyle interventions during breast cancer treatment and its effects on biomarkers of breast cancer.
Impact
Obesity at breast cancer diagnosis is associated with an increased risk of recurrence and cancer-specific and all-cause mortality. Lifestyle factors related to poorer health outcomes disproportionately affect low socioeconomic and underrepresented minority women. Dr. Winer seeks to understand the interplay between obesity, lifestyle factors, and breast cancer biomarkers and implement lifestyle weight management counseling for these underrepresented women to provide equitable care for all breast cancer patients.
What's next
Dr. Winer is beginning two projects for women diagnosed with stage 0-III breast cancer within the last 12 months, have low socioeconomic status or belong to a minority population, and who have a body mass index of 25 or higher. First, Dr. Winer and his team will conduct an evaluation via surveys and interviews to understand how and when to implement evidence-based nutrition, physical activity, and weight management services during treatment. Dr. Winer will address areas including cultural tailoring of diet and physical activity, budget, food insecurity, and native language. Informed by the findings from this evaluation, Dr. Winer will then assess the effect of a 12-month long randomized controlled trial of a lifestyle weight management intervention versus usual care on breast-cancer biomarkers such as glucose, insulin, microbiome, metabolome, immune markers, and more. Dr. Winer ultimately aims to address social determinants of health to achieve successful treatment of all individuals with breast cancer.
Biography
Eric P. Winer, MD, is the Director of Yale Cancer Center and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven. Dr. Winer is an internationally renowned expert in breast cancer whose research has won numerous awards and changed the face of the disease. He serves as the co-chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Breast Cancer Steering Committee that oversees the breast cancer clinical trials sponsored by the NCI. He has also been recognized for his mentoring efforts and was the recipient of the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School in 2020.
Dr. Winer is a graduate of Yale College, with a degree in History and Russian/East European Studies. He subsequently obtained his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine, followed by training in internal medicine at Yale. He completed a fellowship in medical oncology at Duke University Medical Center and remained on the Duke Faculty until 1997. He then spent 24 years at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Winer held the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and served as chief clinical development officer, and senior vice president for medical affairs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School until returning to Yale in 2022.
BCRF Investigator Since
2003
Donor Recognition
The Play for P.I.N.K. Aquidneck Club Award
