About

Dr. Alan A. Arslan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His research interests focus on the development of novel biomarkers for early detection of ovarian cancer, which is the second most common cancer of the female reproductive tract and the leading cause of death from gynecologic neoplasms. Dr. Arslan has been awarded a New Investigator Award from the Department of Defense to study soluble Fas as a potential biomarker of ovarian cancer, and his work explores the role of inflammation in cancer development. He has conducted epidemiological studies examining factors such as aspirin use and their association with ovarian cancer risk, and he is a Principal Investigator on multiple NIH-funded projects related to cancer biomarkers and risk factors. His research aims to improve early detection and understanding of ovarian and other cancers through biomarker discovery and epidemiological analysis.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Oncology
• Internal medicine
• Gynecology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Novel Genetic Risk Loci for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Identified in a Genome-wide Study of African Ancestry Individuals

  medRxiv · 2026-04-22

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Pancreatic cancer disproportionately affects Black individuals in the United States, but they have limited representation in genetic studies of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). To address this gap, we performed admixture mapping and genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) in genetically inferred African ancestry individuals (1,030 cases and 889 controls). Admixture mapping identified three regions with a significantly higher proportion of African ancestry in cases compared to controls (5q33.3, 10p1, 22q12.3). GWAS identified a genome-wide significant association at 5p15.33 ( CLPTM1L , rs383009:T>C, T Allele Frequency=0.51, OR:1.45, P value=1.24×10 -8 ), a locus previously associated with PDAC. Known loci at 5p15.33, 7q32.3, 8q24.21 and 7q25.1 also replicated (P value <0.01). Multi-ancestral fine-mapping identified two potential causal SNPs (rs3830069 and rs2735940) at 5p15.33. Collectively these findings identified novel PDAC risk loci and expanded our understanding of this deadly cancer in underrepresented populations, emphasizing the multifactorial nature of PDAC risk including inherited genetic and non-genetic factors. Statement of Significance To understand how genetic variation contributes to PDAC risk in Black people in North American, we studied individuals of genetically-inferred African ancestry. We identified novel risk loci and differences in the contribution of known loci. This demonstrates that ancestry-informed genetic analyses improve our understanding of PDAC risk and enhances discovery.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The association between midlife neighbourhood walkability and Alzheimer's disease in women: a prospective nested case-control study

  NYU Lang · 2026-03-23

  articleOpen access

  <b>Abstract</b><b>Background:</b><b> </b>The role of modifiable environmental factors in Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk remains poorly understood. Built environment features such as neighbourhood walkability (NW) may influence long-term cognitive health among women.<b>Methods:</b><b> </b>The New York University Women's Health Study recruited 14 273 cognitively healthy women aged 35-65 years between 1985 and 1991, with follow-up for over 30 years. We geocoded residential addresses for each participant to derive a validated four-item baseline NW measure and a two-item average annual NW index over the follow-up period. We conducted a nested case-control study of 1865 AD cases identified via linkage to Medicare claims during follow-up matched to 3730 controls on age, race/ethnicity and Medicare coverage using risk-set sampling. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for AD in relation to tertiles of NW measures, adjusting for potential confounders. Subgroup analyses examined potential effect modification.<b>Results:</b><b> </b>Compared with women living in areas with the lowest baseline NW, those in the middle and highest tertiles had lower odds of having a diagnosis of AD during follow-up, with an OR of 0.95 (0.82-1.11) and 0.83 (0.71-0.98), respectively (P-trend = .03). Results were similar when using average annual NW. The association did not differ appreciably by age, smoking status, education or body mass index.<b>Conclusions:</b><b> </b>Higher midlife NW was associated with reduced odds of AD later in life. These findings highlight the potential for built environment interventions to promote cognitive health and support healthy ageing in women.

  PublisherDOI

• Biomarker-Based Eligibility for Lung Cancer Screening

  JAMA · 2026-05-18

  articleOpen access

  Importance: Screening by low-dose computed tomography can reduce lung cancer mortality among high-risk individuals, but many lung cancers occur among individuals with a smoking history who are not eligible for screening. Objective: To develop and validate the protein-based Integrative Analysis of Lung Cancer Risk and Etiology (INTEGRAL)-Risk model in individuals with a smoking history from the general population. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cohorts in the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium recruited research participants in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia between 1985 and 2009, who were followed up for lung cancer and other health outcomes until 2021. Fourteen case cohorts of 3695 participants with a smoking history within the Lung Cancer Cohort Consortium, including 2305 randomly sampled participants and 1390 patients diagnosed with lung cancer within 3 years after blood sample collection, were designed. Plasma or serum samples from each participant were assayed using the INTEGRAL protein panel in 2022. The INTEGRAL-Risk model was trained using 7 predefined case cohorts (training set; n = 1951) to estimate absolute risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer based on age, smoking history, and 13 proteins. The validity of the INTEGRAL-Risk model was assessed in 7 independent case cohorts (testing set; n = 1744) at 1, 2, and 3 years after blood collection. Exposure: Absolute risk estimates from the protein-based INTEGRAL-Risk model. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the validity of the INTEGRAL-Risk model in the testing set with respect to discrimination (area under the curve [AUC]) and calibration (ratio of expected-to-observed cases [E/O]). Results: A total of 3695 participants were included, with 1951 participants (including 807 with lung cancer) in the training set and 1744 participants (including 583 with lung cancer) in the testing set. In the combined 14 training and testing sets, after application of statistical weights, 323 570 participants were represented (185 016 [57%] female; median [IQR] age, 60 [51-67] years). In the independent testing set, discrimination of the INTEGRAL-Risk model was highest at 1 year of follow-up and exceeded that of the questionnaire-based PLCOm2012 (Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial) model (INTEGRAL-Risk AUC of 0.88 [95% CI, 0.85-0.91] vs PLCOm2012 AUC of 0.79 [95% CI, 0.75-0.83]; P value for difference <.001). Using a risk threshold to achieve the same specificity as US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) 2021 criteria, the INTEGRAL-Risk model captured 85% of lung cancer cases compared with 63% by USPSTF 2021 and 70% by PLCOm2012. Discrimination of the INTEGRAL-Risk model decreased with longer prediction horizons, with a 2-year AUC of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.81-0.86) and 3-year AUC of 0.81 (95% CI, 0.79-0.83). The model was well calibrated (E/O over 3 years, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.69-1.14]). Conclusions and Relevance: Compared with questionnaire-based approaches, the protein-based INTEGRAL-Risk model improved short-term prediction of lung cancer in people with a smoking history. This model has potential to improve selection of high-risk individuals who are most likely to benefit from lung cancer screening.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The association between midlife neighbourhood walkability and Alzheimer's disease in women: a prospective nested case-control study

  NYU Lang · 2026-03-23

  articleOpen access

  <b>Abstract</b><b>Background:</b><b> </b>The role of modifiable environmental factors in Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk remains poorly understood. Built environment features such as neighbourhood walkability (NW) may influence long-term cognitive health among women.<b>Methods:</b><b> </b>The New York University Women's Health Study recruited 14 273 cognitively healthy women aged 35-65 years between 1985 and 1991, with follow-up for over 30 years. We geocoded residential addresses for each participant to derive a validated four-item baseline NW measure and a two-item average annual NW index over the follow-up period. We conducted a nested case-control study of 1865 AD cases identified via linkage to Medicare claims during follow-up matched to 3730 controls on age, race/ethnicity and Medicare coverage using risk-set sampling. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for AD in relation to tertiles of NW measures, adjusting for potential confounders. Subgroup analyses examined potential effect modification.<b>Results:</b><b> </b>Compared with women living in areas with the lowest baseline NW, those in the middle and highest tertiles had lower odds of having a diagnosis of AD during follow-up, with an OR of 0.95 (0.82-1.11) and 0.83 (0.71-0.98), respectively (P-trend = .03). Results were similar when using average annual NW. The association did not differ appreciably by age, smoking status, education or body mass index.<b>Conclusions:</b><b> </b>Higher midlife NW was associated with reduced odds of AD later in life. These findings highlight the potential for built environment interventions to promote cognitive health and support healthy ageing in women.

  PublisherDOI

• The association between midlife neighbourhood walkability and Alzheimer’s disease in women: a prospective nested case–control study

  Age and Ageing · 2026-03-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The role of modifiable environmental factors in Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk remains poorly understood. Built environment features such as neighbourhood walkability (NW) may influence long-term cognitive health among women. METHODS: The New York University Women's Health Study recruited 14 273 cognitively healthy women aged 35-65 years between 1985 and 1991, with follow-up for over 30 years. We geocoded residential addresses for each participant to derive a validated four-item baseline NW measure and a two-item average annual NW index over the follow-up period. We conducted a nested case-control study of 1865 AD cases identified via linkage to Medicare claims during follow-up matched to 3730 controls on age, race/ethnicity and Medicare coverage using risk-set sampling. We used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for AD in relation to tertiles of NW measures, adjusting for potential confounders. Subgroup analyses examined potential effect modification. RESULTS: Compared with women living in areas with the lowest baseline NW, those in the middle and highest tertiles had lower odds of having a diagnosis of AD during follow-up, with an OR of 0.95 (0.82-1.11) and 0.83 (0.71-0.98), respectively (P-trend = .03). Results were similar when using average annual NW. The association did not differ appreciably by age, smoking status, education or body mass index. CONCLUSIONS: Higher midlife NW was associated with reduced odds of AD later in life. These findings highlight the potential for built environment interventions to promote cognitive health and support healthy ageing in women.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evolving Cancer Characteristics Among World Trade Center Survivors: An Updated Analysis from the WTC Environmental Health Center

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2026-05-08

  articleOpen access

  Local community populations (“survivors”) exposed to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster experienced complex exposures to mixtures of dust and combustion products with potential carcinogenic effects. Survivors with certifiable WTC-related conditions are eligible for inclusion in the federally funded WTC Health Program. We provide an updated description of cancers in the WTC Environmental Health Center (EHC), a program for WTC survivors, through 31 December 2024. Using data from the WTC EHC Pan Cancer Database, we summarized demographics, exposure history, and tumor characteristics among enrollees with pathologically confirmed primary cancers meeting WTC Health Program certification criteria. Among 17,449 members, 7274 had a certifiable cancer diagnosis; excluding non-melanoma skin cancers, 6588 patients with 7643 eligible cancers were analyzed. Women comprised 50.3% of the cohort and 47.5% of diagnoses. Solid tumors accounted for 87% of certifications, with breast (22%) and prostate (19%) cancers most frequent, followed by lung (8%), thyroid (6%), colorectal (6%), and melanoma (4.5%). Lymphoproliferative and hematopoietic malignancies represented 13% of cases. Fourteen percent developed multiple primary cancers, and median latency clustered around 14–16 years. Compared with our previous report in 2020, the enrolled number of cancers increased 2.5-fold. These findings support the need for sustained surveillance and additional epidemiologic studies to improve cancer prevention and survivorship in this uniquely exposed population.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Genetically determined body mass index is associated with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in polygenic and Mendelian randomization analyses.

  UNC Libraries · 2026-01-09

  articleOpen access

  Obesity has been associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), but the evidence is inconclusive. We examined the association between genetically determined adiposity and four common NHL subtypes: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), follicular lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and marginal zone lymphoma, using eight genome-wide association studies of European ancestry (N&thinsp;=&thinsp;10,629 cases, 9505 controls) and constructing polygenic scores for body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI (WHRadjBMI). Higher genetically determined BMI was associated with an increased risk of DLBCL [odds ratio (OR) per standard deviation (SD) =&thinsp;1.18, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.05-1.33, p&thinsp;=&thinsp;.005]. This finding was consistent with Mendelian randomization analyses, which demonstrated a similar increased risk of DLBCL with higher genetically determined BMI (ORper SD&thinsp;=&thinsp;1.12, 95% CI: 1.02-1.23, p&thinsp;=&thinsp;.03). No significant associations were observed with other NHL subtypes. Our study demonstrates a positive link between a genetically determined BMI and an increased risk of DLBCL, providing additional support for increased adiposity as a risk factor for DLBCL.

  PublisherDOI

• Supplementary Table S6 from Genetic Susceptibility to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Risk for Pancreatic Cancer: Mendelian Randomization

  2025-11-26

  articleOpen access

  &lt;p&gt;Supplementary Table S6 shows results of univariate analysis for 22 imaging defined nonalcoholic fatty liver disease SNPs in the PanC4 sample&lt;/p&gt;

  PublisherDOI

• Different diabetes types and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a Mendelian randomization and pathway/gene-set analysis

  JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025-11-08 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The associations between different types of diabetes, characterized by distinct pathophysiology and genetic architecture, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) risk are not understood. METHODS: We investigated associations of genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes (T2D), 8 T2D mechanistic clusters, type 1 diabetes (T1D), and maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) with PDAC risk. We used genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary-level statistics for T2D (242 283 cases, 1 569 734 controls), T1D (18 942 cases, 501 638 controls), and PDAC (10 244 cases and 360 535 controls) in individuals of European ancestry. RESULTS: Two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) using the Robust Adjusted Profile Score (MR-RAPS) method indicated that genetically predicted T2D was associated with PDAC risk (OR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.05 to 1.15), particularly the T2D obesity (OR = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.15 to 1.42) and lipodystrophy (OR = 1.25; 95% CI = 1.03 to 1.51) clusters. No association was observed for T1D with PDAC risk (OR = 1.01; 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.02). Pathway/gene-set analysis using the summary-based Adaptive Rank Truncated Product (sARTP) method revealed a significant association between the MODY gene-sets and PDAC risk (P = 1.5 × 10-8), which remained after excluding 20 known PDAC GWAS loci (P = 7.6 × 10-4). HNF1A, FOXA3, and HNF4A were the top contributing genes after excluding the previously identified GWAS loci regions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results from this genetic association study support that T2D, particularly the obesity and lipodystrophy mechanistic clusters, and MODY genomic susceptibility regions play a role in the etiology of PDAC.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Circulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and risk of pancreatic cancer: A nested case-control study within the NYU Women's health study

  Environmental Pollution · 2025-09-30

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03CA108394

  NIH · $167k · 2008

• NIH Grant R21CA116585

  NIH · $381k · 2011

• NIH Grant R03CA096428

  NIH · $169k · 2007

• NIH Grant R03CA095923

  NIH · $169k · 2006

Frequent coauthors

• Anne Zeleniuch‐Jacquotte

  384 shared

• Federico Canzian

  German Cancer Research Center

  205 shared

• Rachael Z. Stolzenberg‐Solomon

  National Cancer Institute

  196 shared

• Laufey T. Ámundadóttir

  195 shared

• Demetrius Albanes

  182 shared

• Julie E. Buring

  Brigham and Women's Hospital

  180 shared

• Brian M. Wolpin

  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  179 shared

• Roy E. Shore

  167 shared

Labs

• Health Tech HubPI

Awards & honors

• New Investigator Award from the Department of Defense