Elisa Bandera’s major research interests include the impact of obesity, body composition, and related factors on breast and ovarian cancer risk, treatment outcomes, and survival, with a focus on cancer health disparities. She has served as principal investigator in several epidemiologic cohort studies, including the Women’s Circle of Health Follow-up Study and the New Jersey Breast Cancer Survivors Study, both of which aim to evaluate factors impacting survivorship and prognosis in minority and medically underserved women, and KP-ROCS, a cohort study aiming to evaluate racial/ethnic disparities in treatment outcomes and survival after a diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

Bandera has served on advisory boards and expert panels for several organizations, including the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, International Agency for Research on Cancer, American Institute for Cancer Research, and the World Cancer Research Fund International. Bandera has contributed substantially to public policy by playing a major role in the development of nutritional guidelines for cancer prevention and survival at a national and global scale. For over 10 years, she served as a member of the international expert panels for the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Continuous Update Project and Third Expert Report on Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Cancer: A Global Perspective. Released in 2018, the expert report publication provided the most comprehensive review of the epidemiologic literature of nutritional factors and cancer published to date and issued dietary guidelines for cancer prevention. Since 2006, Bandera also has been involved in the American Cancer Society’s advisory committees for guidelines on nutrition and physical activity for cancer prevention and survival.

Bandera is a professor at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, School of Public Health, and School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Read more about Bandera and her research program.