# Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis Program

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2022 · $84,880

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis (TEC) Program 
The Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis (TEC) Program, which received a ranking of “Exceptional” 
merit in the 2015 CCSG submission, includes 17 members from six departments within the Perelman School of 
Medicine (Psychiatry, Medicine, Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Dermatology, 
Pediatrics, and Neuroscience) and from the School of Nursing and the Annenberg School of Communication, 
who elucidate how exposure to tobacco and environmental carcinogens cause cancer and how these 
exposures can be mitigated by risk reduction, intervention, and communication-based intervention strategies. 
The TEC Program is particularly focused on tobacco-related cancers, asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, 
and has a new effort in UV/light exposure and skin cancer. These research areas provide rich opportunities for 
inter- and intra-Programmatic research. TEC Program Leaders are Dr. Trevor Penning, an expert in 
environmental carcinogenesis, and Dr. Robert Schnoll, a leader in tobacco control, who together champion a 
translational and transdisciplinary vision for TEC. The scientific aims of the Program are to: 1) elucidate the 
pathways underlying exposure risk (e.g., risk factors for tobacco dependence; risk of environmental exposures 
for mesothelioma, lung cancer and skin cancer); 2) identify the mechanisms linking exposure to disease; 3) 
evaluate methods for exposure and risk reduction (e.g., tobacco cessation treatments; asbestos remediation; 
UV light protection); and 4) test methods of risk communication (e.g., tobacco marketing, regulatory science). 
The Program has 13 R01-equivalents. Program members accrued 1,642 subjects to interventional treatment 
trials and 2,776 subjects to non-interventional trials. As one of the two Population Science Programs, TEC 
Program members collaborate within TEC and across the Cancer Control, Cancer Therapeutics, Tumor 
Biology, Radiobiology and Imaging (RBI), and Immunobiology Programs and engage in population and 
community-based research within the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) catchment area. TEC also leads 
transformative educational experiences across Penn and the catchment area. Seminal contributions during the 
project period include illustrating the potential use of low-nicotine content cigarettes as a national regulatory 
mechanism to reduce smoking rates and identifying novel mechanisms by which petrogenic polycyclic 
aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment are metabolically activated. The intra- and inter-Programmatic 
environment is facilitated by mentoring, symposia, working groups, and pilot grants. TEC has $5M in cancer- 
related grants (direct), of which $2.6M is from NCI and $4.8M is peer-reviewed. Collaborative grants include an 
NCI U54 Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (with Cancer Control), a P30 Center of Excellence in 
Environmental Toxicology (CEET; with Cancer Control), and a NIDA funded P30 ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10330971
- **Project number:** 5P30CA016520-46
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Trevor M Penning
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $84,880
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1997-01-15 → 2025-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10330971

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10330971, Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis Program (5P30CA016520-46). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10330971. Licensed CC0.

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