Changeover in the Cancer Prevention Unit: Ute Mons is taking over from Martina Pötschke-Langer
On September 1, 2016 Dr. Ute Mons will take over as Head of the Cancer Prevention Unit at the German Cancer Research Center, which also serves as the WHO Collaboration Center for Tobacco Control. She will be replacing Dr. Martina Pötschke-Langer, who headed the unit since it was established 19 years ago, and is now retiring.
Changeover in the Cancer Prevention Unit: Ute Mons (left) is taking over from Martina Pötschke-Langer
© Jutta Jung/DKFZ
"The aim of the unit has always been to make a significant contribution to reducing tobacco consumption, as this is the most important single risk factor for cancer", explains Professor Michael Boutros, Acting Scientific Director of the DKFZ. Around 120,000 people in Germany die every year as a direct consequence of smoking, 35,000 of them from lung cancer.
Martina Pötschke-Langer and her team have produced numerous publications, fact sheets and background information on the subject of smoking, tobacco, and protection of non-smokers, and acted as a consultant for political decision-makers. She made an important contribution to significantly reduce tobacco consumption since 2002, especially amongst adolescents and young people. She points out that they also "contributed significantly towards the introduction of the legislation on nonsmokers' protection, and the transposition of the European Tobacco Product Directive into national law".
Ute Mons studied sociology and epidemiology and already worked in the Cancer Prevention Unit as a research assistant from 2007 until 2012. She subsequently changed to the Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research under Prof. Hermann Brenner, where she investigated the correlation between smoking and chronic diseases associated with old age. Mons has set herself a big challenge: "It is particularly important to me to continue promoting cancer prevention in Germany."
Ute Mons plans to extend the central area of tobacco prevention by the prevention of other avoidable cancer risk factors, such as excess weight. "Above all, we want to continue raising public awareness with our results. The only successful way to really prevent cancer is to inform opinion leaders and policy makers about scientific evidence on cancer risk factors, as well as effective measures and prevention strategies."
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Changeover in the Cancer Prevention Unit: Ute Mons is taking over from Martina Pötschke-Langer
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
