Dimitrios Trichopoulos

Dimitrios Trichopoulos
Born (1938-12-09)December 9, 1938
Volos, Greece
Died December 1, 2014(2014-12-01) (aged 75)
Athens, Greece
Nationality Greek
Fields Oncology, cancer prevention
Institutions

University of Athens Medical School, 1963-2014
Academy of Athens (1997-2014)
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm (1998-2014)

Harvard School of Public Health, 1969-2014
Doctoral advisor Brian MacMahon
Known for

—Mediterranean Diet expert
—multi-factorial etiology of hepatocellular cancer, with emphasis on the interactive effects of hepatitis B and C viruses, tobacco smoking, and ethanol intake
—Several oncology firsts:

  • First, with 1990 paper in The Lancet, to propose that in utero exposures play a major role in breast cancer causation.
  • First in 1981, along with an independent paper published a few days later, to report that secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer.
  • Dimitrios Trichopoulos studied 51 nonsmoking women hospitalized with lung cancer in Greece, and compared them with age-matched women hospitalized for other problems. The researchers determined that the cancer patients were significantly more likely to have been exposed to their husband’s cigarettes. Follow-up studies went on to confirm the risks of smoke inhalation by children in smoking households or in nonsmokers who live nearby.
Notable awards

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Dimitrios Trichopoulos (Greek: Δημήτριος Τριχόπουλος; December 9, 1938 – December 1, 2014),[2] was a Mediterranean Diet expert[3][4] and tobacco harms researcher. He was Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention and Professor of Epidemiology, and a past chair of the Department of Epidemiology, in the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Dimitrios Trichopoulos conducted research and taught for more than four decades in the field of cancer epidemiology and prevention. He published more than 1,000 scientific papers, continually charting scientific frontiers, from seminal research linking secondhand smoke (SHS) from cigarettes with increased susceptibility to risk for lung cancer, and hepatitis B virus and tobacco smoking with increased risk of primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), to findings documenting that surgically induced and early natural menopause reduced breast cancer risk. Beyond oncology, his paper linking psychological stress after an earthquake in Athens to increased risk of cardiac death was included in a 1997 list in The Lancet of 27 papers deserving to form a core canon of medical literature that every health professional should read.

His oncology epidemiology and prevention research career included significant "firsts": He was first, with a 1990 paper in The Lancet, to propose that in utero exposures play a major role in breast cancer causation. He also was first in 1981, along with an independent paper published a few days later, to report that secondhand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer. Dimitrios Trichopoulos studied 51 nonsmoking women in Greece who had been hospitalized with lung cancer, then he compared them with age-matched women who had been hospitalized (also in Greece) for other problems. Though seemingly self-evident, researchers were able to determine statistically that these cancer patients were significantly more likely to have been exposed to their husband’s cigarettes. Follow-up studies then began to confirm the risks of smoke inhalation by children in smoking households or in nonsmokers who live nearby smoking, in adjacent apartment units.

A native of Greece, Dimitrios studied at the University of Athens Medical School, where he earned an M.D. in 1963 and a Ph.D. in 1971. In 1968, he earned a S.M. in Boston at the Harvard School of Public Health and held several teaching appointments there over the next two decades (lecturer, 1969–1970; visiting professor, 1981–1985; adjunct, 1988–1989).

Harvard appointed him a full professor in the Department of Epidemiology in 1989, which department he began to chair that same year succeeding Brian MacMahon, and serving in that role until 1996. Initiatives under his leadership included a series of collaborations with investigators now at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1993, he was named Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, and also began a four-year appointment as director of the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.[5][6]

Dimitrios Trichopoulos also was a Member of the Athens Academy and president of the Hellenic Health Foundation in Greece. He held teaching appointments at the University of Athens Medical School and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

His numerous awards and distinctions include honorary doctorates, the Brinker International Award for Breast Cancer Clinical Research, Harvard School of Public Health’s Julius Richmond Award (2004) and Alumni Award of Merit (2009), and the Medal of Honor of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization.

He is survived by his wife Antonia, who is known as "mother of the Mediterranean Diet".[7]

Education

Career

Dimitrios Trichopoulos was born in Volos, Greece, about 326 kilometres (203 miles) north of Athens. He studied Medicine at the University of Athens Medical School. He further studied Pathology, Microbiology, Public Health, and Epidemiology at universities of Athens, London, Oxford, and Harvard.

Dr. Trichopoulos had also studied the multi-factorial etiology of hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), with emphasis on the interactive effects of hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses, tobacco smoking, and ethanol intake.

He was chief professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University from 1989-1996, professor of the prevention of cancer and Head of the Center of Cancer Prevention at Harvard University from 1993 to 1997, professor and Head department at the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology of the University of Athens Medical School from 1972 through 2014, professor of Medical Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm from 1998 through 2014, and member of the Athens Academy from 1997 through 2014.

Mediterranean Diet

Trichopoulos co-chaired for Oldways (Boston) in 1993 their first International Conference on the Diets of the Mediterranean, the Conference where the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid was introduced. His wife, Antonia Trichopoulou, MD, PhD, was known as the "mother of the Mediterranean Diet"[8] an honor shared with Greek or Mediterranean cuisine.[9]

Key publications

Books

References

  1. ↑ http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/traditions/prizes/honorary-doctorates/
  2. ↑ Lagiou P. In memoriam Dimitrios Trichopoulos: an argonaut in search of the golden fleece of medicine (1938-2014). Eur J Epidemiol. 2015 Feb;30(2):87-9.
  3. ↑ Διαβάστε περισσότερα: Ellines.com, obituary for Dimitrios Trichopoulos
  4. ↑ Greek2Me: the Greek way to health obituary of Dimitrios Trichopoulos
  5. ↑ Cromie WJ, You Can Help Prevent Your Own Cancer, Researchers Say, Harvard Gazette, November 21, 1996, cites then (November 1996) most recent issue of Cancer Causes and Control, noting the then-limits of the Mediterranean Diet as substituting plant oils for animal-derived oils rather than omitting oils altogether, also noting the authors' skepticism that human behavior is fully correctable through education, accessed online 12/3/2014
  6. ↑ Cancer Prevention Fellowship
  7. ↑ Adherence to a Mediterranean Diet and Survival in a Greek Population, NEJM
  8. ↑ Website, Tastre the Mediterranean conference, Šibenik, Croatia, May 28-31, 2015. "'Mother of the Mediterranean diet' enjoyed Taste the Mediterranean Final party delicacies." 5/31/2014
  9. ↑ EGEA Proceedings, International Conference on Health Benefits of Mediterranean diet: Highlights on Cancer & Cardiovascular Diseases, 2003, 104 pages

External links

- Outlines career and life of Prof. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, as interviewed by current HSPH colleague and Chair of Epidemiology

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