# Mapping the blood cancer exposome for environmental risk profiles of mature B-cell neoplasms

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $591,095

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma are the most common mature B-cell neoplasms (MBNs), with
approximately 500,000 new cases and ~20,000 deaths per year. Both genetics and environment contribute to
MBN risk, but no single agent plays a dominant role, with environmental determinants remain largely unknown
and uncharacterized. The rapid increase in incidence of MBNs during the latter 20th century, strongly supports
environmental factors as key contributors; yet there have been no systematic studies of complex
environmental exposures contributing to MBN risk, or studies designed to discover previously unknown
environmental factors. Leveraging a powerful untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) approach
in a robust nested case–control study design, we will perform the first pre-diagnosis comprehensive
characterization of the blood exposome for MBNs and primary subtypes. The exposome represents cumulative
life-long environmental exposures that produce biological response signatures influencing health and disease;
exposome characterization is widely recognized as the greatest unmet challenge in cancer epidemiology.
Implementation of exposomic studies have been limited by the technological challenges of measuring the
thousands of chemicals that define it. Our team is at the forefront in developing critical advances in HRMS
methodologies and algorithms for chemical detection, high-dimensional approaches for biomarker selection,
and advanced mixtures statistics that address the complexity of the real-life environment. We are thus poised
to conduct cutting-edge exposomic research to overcome these barriers and identify environmental
determinants of MBN and biological response mechanisms underlying carcinogenesis. Using blood samples
collected years before diagnosis in cases and matched controls in two independent cohorts, we will: 1) Identify
blood exposome biomarkers associated with MBN primary subtypes and time-to-diagnosis using a hybrid
HRMS approach that combines targeted quantification of known environmental pollutants while screening for
and discovering unexpected or uncharacterized environmental exposures that predict MBN; 2) Determine
exposomic risk scores for estimating the cumulative effect of multiple environmental exposures on disease risk
by applying novel statistical mixture and machine learning approaches to identify stratification profiles for
MBNs; and 3) Integrate exposure, biological response pathways, and genetic risk factors to uncover
mechanisms contributing to disease pathogenesis. Our results will identify novel pre-diagnostic exposome
biomarkers of risk for MBNs and determine how exposure and biological response contribute to disease
pathogenesis. Our study is the critical first step needed to establish exposomic technologies and methods as
tools to better understand cancer risk. This study will therefore also serve as a model for future exposomic
research in cancer precision medicine and will high...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10755497
- **Project number:** 7R01ES032831-02
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Douglas Ian Walker
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $591,095
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2022-02-25 → 2027-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10755497

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10755497, Mapping the blood cancer exposome for environmental risk profiles of mature B-cell neoplasms (7R01ES032831-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10755497. Licensed CC0.

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