PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The vision of the Epidemiology and Cancer Control Program (ECC) is to reduce the cancer burden in the PCC catchment area and beyond. To achieve this vision, we conduct innovative and high impact research, discovering risk factors and translating this knowledge into effective cancer control. Under the continued leadership of Jiyoung Ahn, PhD and new Co-Leader Danil Makarov, MD, MHS, ECC organizes its research efforts into four complementary thematic aims: Aim1: To discover and effectively modulate cancer-causing microbial and genetic risk factors, Aim 2: To assess and effectively control cancer-causing environmental and behavioral risk factors, and Aim 3: To improve cancer care delivery by identifying and disseminating best practices across the care continuum. The Program is composed of 37 full members from 15 academic departments in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine (NYUGSoM), particularly the Department of Population Health, as well as the NYU College of Nursing, College of Dentistry, and College of Global Public Health. ECC members currently have 76 funded projects totaling $13.1M in annual direct costs, $5.5M from NCI (43% of peer- reviewed funding). Our members are highly collaborative, as indicated by 34% intra- and 21% inter-programmatic collaborations, 52% inter-institutional collaborations (with other NCI-CCs), and 32 multi-PI grants. Program members published 858 papers in the current period, including many in top tier journals, such as NEJM, Lancet, and JAMA Pediatrics (19% of publications [n=163] have IF>10). Our signature research on the microbiome has led to novel discoveries of cancer-causing microbial risk factors, published in JAMA Oncology, Gut, JNCI and already cited more than 250 times; these paradigm-shifting hypotheses on microbial contribution to these malignancies have also fueled translation to clinical trials and stimulated new avenues of basic science research. Our work on developing innovative