Research Summary

My research focuses on understanding the role of social determinants of health in shaping and perpetuating cancer health disparities. One main area of focus is on place and health. I have participated as a Co-Investigator on several research projects evaluating how neighborhood characteristics (e.g., social, built, and physical environment attributes) and geographic variation may shape cancer-related health behaviors and outcomes across the cancer continuum. In addition, my research has included efforts to better characterize neighborhoods for population health studies (neighborhood archetypes, virtual audits with Google Street View). Our team is also working on multiple ways to enhance the neighborhood data for existing cohorts to better understand the role of neighborhoods in cancer outcomes, including asking participants about their neighborhoods and whether they utilize the resources as well as constructing residential histories to study impact of neighborhood change. My research has also focused on understanding how factors related to social status (race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and immigration) impact health disparities, particularly applying an intersectional lens. During my post-doc, I led a multidisciplinary team in the development of a discrimination measure for the California Health Interview Survey, where we applied a mixed methods approach to testing and validating the measure. Since then, I have continued to study self-reported experiences of discrimination (across a variety of domains, including medical discrimination) and its impact on health behaviors and outcomes, including quality of life among breast cancer survivors.

Research Funding

  • July 8, 2024 - June 30, 2029 - A national Asian American cohort for assessing multi-level determinants in cancer etiology: the ASPIRE Cohort , Multiple Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA290831
  • September 24, 2022 - June 30, 2027 - Understanding the impact of structural racism on racial/ethnic inequities in mortality: The Multiethnic Cohort Study , Multiple Principal Investigator (contact) . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01MD017762
  • April 1, 2020 - March 31, 2025 - Ethnicity and Nativity in Cancer - Latino & Asian Enclaves: The ENCLAVE Study , Multiple Principal Investigator (Contact) . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA237540
  • August 16, 2019 - July 31, 2024 - Understanding the Multilevel Drivers of Liver Cancer Disparities , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA225478
  • September 1, 2017 - February 28, 2019 - Impact of Neighborhoods and Navigation on Survivorship , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: California Breast Cancer Research Program, Sponsor Award ID: 23AB-1501
  • February 1, 2016 - January 31, 2018 - Impact of social and built environments on health-related quality of life for cancer survivors , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R03CA202192
  • September 19, 2016 - December 18, 2017 - Patient generated health data (PGHD) to enhance SEER data collection , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: National Cancer Institute, Sponsor Award ID: HHSN26100011
  • May 1, 2016 - August 31, 2017 - Addressing disparities in colorectal cancer outcomes: the role of neighborhoods , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Stanford Cancer Institute, Sponsor Award ID:
  • September 16, 2014 - August 31, 2017 - Developing Neighborhood Archetypes for Understanding Disparities in Cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21CA174469
  • January 1, 2015 - December 31, 2015 - Using Google Street View to Assess Neighborhoods for Population Health Research , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Stanford University (Spectrum), Sponsor Award ID:

Education

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, B.A., 05/1996, Biological Basis of Behavior
Columbia University, New York, NY, M.P.H., 05/1998, Sociomedical Sciences
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, Ph.D., 05/2007, Social & Behavioral Sciences
National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 03/2010, Cancer Prevention

Honors & Awards

  • 1998-1999
    Community Fellowship Award, Open Society Institute
  • 2002-2006
    Pre-Doctoral Cancer Training Grant, NCI (awarded to Johns Hopkins University)
  • 2005-2006
    Health, Behavior and Society Departmental Dissertation Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • 2005-2006
    The Carol Eliasberg Martin Scholarship in Cancer Prevention, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • 2005-2006
    The John C. Hume Doctoral Award, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
  • 2008
    Director's Award for outstanding leadership in the development of novel methods for the evaluation of data collection instruments used across populations with multiple languages and cultures (group award), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
  • 2009
    Fellows Award for Research Excellence (FARE), National Institutes of Health
  • 2009
    Cancer Prevention Research Training Merit Award, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
  • 2011
    Travel Award to NIH-supported Training Program in Advanced Spatial Analysis, MultilevelModeling workshop, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
  • 2012-2014
    Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program, National Institutes of Health
  • 2015-2017
    Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program (renewal), National Institutes of Health
  • 2016-2017
    Quick Start Training Program, California Breast Cancer Research Program

Selected Publications

  1. Courtney M. Hill, Iona Cheng, Katherine Lin, Salma Shariff-Marco, Meredith AJ. Hullar, Trang VoPham, Marie Spiker, Donald L. Chi, Chris Haiman, Lynne R. Wilkens, Loïc Le Marchand, Amanda I. Phipps Abstract A101: Associations of neighborhood environment with colorectal cancer risk across race and ethnicity in the Multiethnic Cohort.  View on PubMed
  2. Brittany N. Morey, Iona Cheng, Scarlett Lin. Gomez, Esther M. John, Lawrence H. Kushi, Marilyn L. Kwan, Katherine Lin, Lenora Loo, Julie Von Behren, Anna Wu, Song Yao, Salma Shariff-Marco Abstract A104: How neighborhood social and sociocultural contexts are associated with mortality in Asian American breast cancer patients.  View on PubMed
  3. Salma Shariff-Marco, Alice Guan, Katherine Lin, Mindy C. DeRouen, Lynne Wilkens, Serge Atherwood, Meera Sangaramoorthy, Debora L. Oh, Kevin Cassel, Gilbert C. Gee, Scarlett L. Gomez, Iona Cheng Abstract A109: The development of racial and ethnic-specific composite measures of structural racism for cancer inequities research: The Multiethnic Cohort Study.  View on PubMed
  4. Catherine P. Walsh, Meera Sangaramoorthy, Song-Yi Park, Joseph Gibbons, Salma Shariff-Marco, S. Lani Park, Gertraud Maskarinec, Anna H. Wu, Christopher A. Haiman, Lynne Wilkens, Loïc Le Marchand, Iona Cheng Abstract A110: Neighborhood racial and ethnic composition typology and colorectal cancer risk: The multiethnic cohort study.  View on PubMed
  5. Jason Goodloe, Lufan Wang, Janet E. Cowan, Peter R. Carroll, June M. Chan, Salma Shariff-Marco, Samuel L. Washington Abstract A124: Heterogeneity of community drivers of social vulnerability across racial groups of men with prostate cancer.  View on PubMed
  6. Meera Sangaramoorthy, Katherine Lin, Yuhong Zhou, Cherie Guillermo, Mimi Ton, Dian Gu, Pushkar Inamdar, Jun Wu, Kirsten Beyer, Mindy C. DeRouen, Alexandra M. Binder, Daniel Stram, Scarlett L. Gomez, Salma Shariff-Marco, Lynne Wilkens, Loïc Le Marchand, Melinda C. Aldrich, S. Lani Park, Iona Cheng Abstract A146: Structural racism and lung cancer risk: The multiethnic cohort study and Southern community cohort study.  View on PubMed
  7. Mimi Ton, Dian Gu, Cherie Guillermo, Yuhong Zhou, Meera Sangaramoorthy, Katherine Lin, Pushkar Inamdar, Jun Wu, Kirsten Beyer, Mindy C. DeRouen, Alexandra Binder, Daniel Stram, Scarlett L. Gomez, Salma Shariff-Marco, Lynne Wilkens, Loïc Le Marchand, Melinda C. Aldrich, S Lani Park, Iona Cheng Abstract B155: Association between mortgage lending bias and smoking cessation: The Multiethnic Cohort and Southern Community Cohort Study.  View on PubMed
  8. Mindy C. DeRouen, Meera Sangaramoorthy, Deidre Johns, Palama Lee, Ila McDermott, Scarlett L. Gomez, Loic Le. Marchand, Melinda C. Aldrich, Lani Park, Iona Cheng, Salma Shariff-Marco Abstract C021: A conceptual framework for investigating measures of neighborhood-level structural racism and cancer health inequities developed through academic and community collaboration.  View on PubMed
  9. John EM, Koo J, Keegan TH, Gomez SL, Ingles SA, Kurian AW, Kwan ML, Neuhausen SL, Shariff-Marco S, Cheng I, Wu AH Reproductive factors and risk of contralateral breast cancer by age and hormone receptor status: The California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium.  View on PubMed
  10. John EM, Koo J, Keegan TH, Gomez SL, Ingles SA, Kurian AW, Neuhausen SL, Shariff-Marco S, Wu AH, Cheng I, Kwan ML Overall and central adiposity and risk of contralateral breast cancer: The California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium.  View on PubMed
  11. Erin L. Van Blarigan, Stephen Li, Robin C. Vanderpool, Salma Shariff-Marco, Sarah H. Nash, Meg McKinley, Nicole Senft Everson, Angela L. W. Meisner, Jess Gorzelitz, Scarlett L. Gomez, Mindy C. DeRouen Health behaviors, and beliefs about health behaviors and cancer risk, among US cancer survivors: a HINTS-SEER study.  View on PubMed
  12. Guan A, Duffy C, Loya Z, Wadhwa M, Gomez SL, Shariff-Marco S Perspectives on sexual orientation and gender identity data collection from healthcare system staff and leadership: case study in an academic hospital setting.  View on PubMed
  13. Hendra K, Cui X, Main E, Lee HC, Lin Gomez S, Shariff-Marco S, Jensen EA, Profit J Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Infants with Very Low Birth Weight in California.  View on PubMed
  14. Nana Shakhnazaryan, Kim Rhoads, Peter Carroll, Hao Gia Nguyen, Salma Shariff-Marco, June M. Chan, Samuel L. Washington Improving patient outcomes by assessing unmet social needs: A preliminary study in a urologic oncology clinic.  View on PubMed
  15. Chen F, Paik A, Sheng X, Cheng I, Shariff-Marco S, Wilkens LR, Le Marchand L, Conti DV, Haiman CA, Setiawan VW. Risk of aggressive prostate cancer with successive generations in the U.S. among Latino men. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025 May 27.  View on PubMed
  16. Ramalingam K, Li S, McKinley M, Vanderpool RC, Nash SH, Shariff-Marco S, Scheffler A, Van Blarigan EL, DeRouen MC. Awareness and utilization of genetic testing for hereditary cancers in cancer survivors: a cross-sectional 2021 HINTS-SEER study. J Cancer Surviv. 2025 May 22.  View on PubMed
  17. Sangaramoorthy M, Samayoa C, Inamdar PP, Roh JM, Valice E, Hong CC, Kwan ML, Ambrosone CB, Kushi LH, Gomez SL, Shariff-Marco S. Association between neighborhood stressors and allostatic load in breast cancer survivors: the Pathways Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2025 May 07; 194(5):1264-1274.  View on PubMed
  18. Belmont C, Inamdar P, Shariff-Marco S, Gul A, Huang AJ, Chambers HF, Raphael E. Spatial clusters of dominant lineages of uropathogenic Escherichia coli in a community dwelling patient population. Res Sq. 2025 May 07.  View on PubMed
  19. Iyer HS, Cheng I, Opara C, Lin K, Zeinomar N, Le Marchand L, Wilkens L, Shariff-Marco S, Conti DV, Haiman CA, Gomez SL, Rebbeck TR. African Genetic Ancestry, Structural and Social Determinants of Health, and Mortality in Black Adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 May 01; 8(5):e2510016.  View on PubMed
  20. Park SL, Lichtensztajn D, Yang J, Wu J, Shariff-Marco S, Stram DO, Inamdar P, Fruin S, Larson T, Tseng C, Setiawan VW, Gomez SL, Samet J, Le Marchand L, Wilkens LR, Ritz B, Wu AH, Cheng I. Ambient Air Pollution and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: The Multiethnic Cohort Study. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 May; 22(5):698-706.  View on PubMed

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