Dr. Dawsey recentlyretired as a Senior Investigator at the National Cancer Institute of theNational Institutes of Health, where he worked for 36 years. During his time atNIH, his main focus was the prevention and control of esophageal squamous cellcarcinoma (ESCC). He performed multiplestudies in China, Iran, Brazil and East Africa to understand the etiology ofthis cancer globally in high-risk populations, and he helped develop clinicallyuseful early detection and treatment techniques for this disease. With US andChinese colleagues, he developed an endoscopic early detection and treatmentprogram for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma that is now used in a nationalprogram to screen over 200,000 adults annually in high-risk areas of China, andthis program has been shown to reduce ESCC mortality by ~33% over 10 years.Most recently, he was a founding member of the African Esophageal CancerConsortium (AfrECC), which was created to perform coordinated etiologic, earlydetection and treatment, and palliation studies to try to reduce the burden ofESCC in Africa. He is currently President of the Board of the AfricanEsophageal Cancer Consortium Foundation.
AfrECC Working Groups are subgroups within the AfrECC consortium that are focused on specific related activities. At the time of application for AfrECC membership, each potential new member will be asked which working group(s) they would like to be a member of. The AfrECC Etiology Working Group includes AfrECC members who are conducting etiologic and molecular studies of esophageal cancer in Africa. These include studies of the genetic, environmental and lifestyle risk factors and mechanistic pathways for esophageal cancer and its precursors.
The AfrECC Clinical Working Group includes members whose work aims to improve early detection and clinical care of patients with esophageal cancer.