Center Co-Principal Investigator, Administrative
Core Co-Director, Biomarker Core Co-Director

Contact information:
Cancer Center
MMC 806, Del Code 8806
420 Delaware St. SE
Minneapolis MN 55455
hecht002@umn.edu

Stephen S. Hecht, Ph.D. is Wallin Professor of Cancer Prevention and American Cancer Society Research Professor at the Cancer Center and Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology University of Minnesota. Dr. Hecht serves as co-director of the TTURC and its Administrative and Biomarkers Cores as well as head of the Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program of the Cancer Center. He is also a member of the Medicinal Chemistry graduate program.

Dr. Hecht received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also did postdoctoral research in mass spectrometry, and his B.S. in chemistry from Duke University. Before moving to the University of Minnesota in 1996, he worked at the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, NY for 23 years, where he was Director of Research from 1987 to 1996.

Dr. Hecht is an internationally recognized expert on tobacco carcinogens, their biomarkers, and mechanisms and prevention of tobacco-induced cancer. He received the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Health in 2001 and the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor Award in 2002. He is the most cited author in tobacco carcinogenesis for the period 1980-2004. He received the American Association for Cancer Research-Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research in 2006. He presently holds a Merit Award and was previously the recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Grant, both from the National Cancer Institute. In 2000, he was named an American Cancer Society Research Professor, one of about 40 in the country.

Dr. Hecht has served on several International Agency for Research on Cancer committees for the Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, including Tobacco Smoking and Involuntary Smoking, 2002 and Betel Quid and Areca Nut, 2003, as chairman. He was also a contributor to the 2004 Surgeon General's Report on Passive Smoking and Health. He has served on numerous government and international committees including the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors (2001-2004 and 1989-1995), the National Toxicology Program Board of Scientific Counselors (1997-2001), and the National Center for Toxicological Research Science Advisory Board (1998-2002). He was a member of the National Institutes of Health Chemical Pathology Study Section (1981-1985) and the American Cancer Society Peer Review Committee on Carcinogenesis, Nutrition, and the Environment (1998-2001; chair, 2001) and is currently chair of the NIH Chemo/Dietary Prevention Study Section.

Dr. Hecht is a senior editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Clinical Cancer Research and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. He is active in the American Association for Cancer Research where he has served on and chaired program committees for national and specialized meetings, and on the steering committee of the Chemistry in Cancer Research Working Group. He has authored/co-authored more than 600 publications.

Selected Recent Publications

1. Carmella SG, Yoder A, and Hecht SS. Combined analysis of r-1,t-2,3,c-4-tetrahydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophenanthrene and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol in smokers' plasma. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2006;15(8):1490-1494.
2. Hatsukami DK, Benowitz NL, Rennard SI, Oncken C, and Hecht SS. Biomarkers to assess the utility of potential reduced exposure tobacco products. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2006;8(4):599-622.
3. Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Yoder A, Chen M, Li ZZ, Le C, Dayton R, Jensen J, and Hatsukami DK. Comparison of polymorphisms in genes involved in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon metabolism with urinary phenanthrene metabolite ratios in smokers. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2006;15(10):1805-1811.
4. Carmella, SG, Han S, Villalta PW, and Hecht SS (2005). Analysis of total 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol in smokers' blood. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2005;14(11 Pt 1):2669-2672.
5. Hecht SS, Chen M, Yoder A, Jensen J, Hatsukami D, Le C, and Carmella SG. Longitudinal study of urinary phenanthrene metabolite ratios: effect of smoking on the diol epoxide pathway. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2005;14(12): 2969-2974.
6. Hecht SS, Murphy SE, Carmella SG, Li S, Jensen J, Le C, Joseph AM, and Hatsukami DK. Similar uptake of lung carcinogens by smokers of regular, light, and ultralight cigarettes. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2005;14(3):693-698.
7. Carmella SG, Le KA, and Hecht SS. Improved method for determination of 1-hydroxypyrene in human urine. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2004;13(7):1261-1264.
8. Carmella SG, Le KA, and Hecht SS. Improved method for determination of 1-hydroxypyrene in human urine. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2004;13(7):1261-1264.
9. Hatsukami DK, Lemmonds C, Zhang Y, Murphy SE, Le C, Carmella SG, and Hecht SS. Evaluation of carcinogen exposure in people who used "reduced exposure" tobacco products. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2004;96(11):844-852.
10. Hecht SS. Carcinogen derived biomarkers: applications in studies of human exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.Tobacco Control. 2004;13 Suppl 1:i48-56.
11. Hecht SS. Tobacco smoke carcinogens: human uptake and DNA interactions. In P. Boyle, N. Gray, J. Henningfield, J. Seffrin & W. Zatonski (Eds.), Tobacco: The Public Health Disaster of the Twentieth Century: Oxford University Press, 2004.
12. Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Le KA, Murphy SE, Li YS, Le C, Jensen J, and Hatsukami DK. Effects of reduced cigarette smoking on levels of 1-hydroxypyrene in urine. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2004;13(5):834-842.
13. Hecht SS, Murphy SE, Carmella SG, Zimmerman CL, Losey L, Kramarczuk I, Roe MR, Puumala SS, Li YS, Le C, Jensen J, and Hatsukami DK. Effects of reduced cigarette smoking on the uptake of a tobacco-specific lung carcinogen. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 2004;96(2):107-115.
14. Hughes JR, Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Murphy SE, and Callas P. Smoking behaviour and toxin exposure during six weeks use of a potential reduced exposure product: Omni. Tobacco Control. 2004;13(2), 175-179.
15. Murphy SE, Link CA, Jensen J, Le C, Puumala SS, Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Losey L, and Hatsukami DK. A comparison of urinary biomarkers of tobacco and carcinogen exposure in smokers. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2004;13(10):1617-1623.
16. Carmella SG, Han S, Fristad A, Yang Y, and Hecht SS. Analysis of total 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) in human urine. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. 2003;12(11 Pt 1):1257-1261.
17. Hatsukami DK, Hecht SS, Hennrikus DJ, Joseph AM, and Pentel PR. Biomarkers of tobacco exposure or harm: application to clinical and epidemiological studies. 25-26 October 2001, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nicotine & Tobacco Research. 2003;5(3):387-396.
18. Hecht SS. Tobacco carcinogens, their biomarkers and tobacco-induced cancer. Nature Reviews. Cancer. 2003;3(10):733-744.
19. Hecht SS. Cigarette smoking and lung cancer: chemical mechanisms and approaches to prevention. Lancet Oncology. 2002;3(8):461-469.
20. Hecht SS. Human urinary carcinogen metabolites: biomarkers for investigating tobacco and cancer. Carcinogenesis. 2002;23(6):907-922.
21. Hecht SS, Carmella SG, Ye M, Le KA, Jensen JA, Zimmerman CL, and Hatsukami DK. Quantitation of metabolites of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone after cessation of smokeless tobacco use. Cancer Research. 2002;62(1):129-134.
22. Pfeifer GP, Denissenko MF, Olivier M, Tretyakova N, Hecht SS, and Hainaut P. Tobacco smoke carcinogens, DNA damage and p53 mutations in smoking-associated cancers. Oncogene. 2002;21(48):7435-7451.