School of Dental Medicine: Faculty - Athanasios I. Zavras, D.M.D., D.M.Sc.

Athanasios I. Zavras, D.M.D., D.M.Sc.

Associate Professor and Director of Dental Public Health

Contact Information:
Office of Oral Health Policy & Epidemiology Harvard School of Dental Medicine 188 Longwood Avenue, REB # 217 Boston, MA 02115	Tel: 617-432-(1455) FAX: 617-432-(0047) E-mail: zavras@hms.harvard.edu

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Athanasios (Thanos) I. Zavras is a full time, tenure-track faculty member of the Dept. of Oral Health Policy & Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and co-director of the NIH-funded T32 training program in Oral Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. His research work at Harvard involves:

1) the application of molecular, epidemiologic and genetic technologies in the evaluation of biologic pathways that lead to disease, especially cancer,

2) the identification or evaluation of individualized preventive and therapeutic strategies, and

3) the development of health policies to allow wide use of safe and effective genomic technologies by the population.

Dr. Zavras is principal investigator in two NIDCR-funded grants to study the Genetic Epidemiology of Oral Premalignancies and Cancer in Health Professionals (2005-2008) and the Pharmacogenetics of Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (2007-2009). He holds a research award from the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund to evaluate various cancer detection methods. Dr. Zavras directs the Cancer Research & Control Program at the Harvard Cyprus International Institute for Public Health. His work at the Institute aims to identify risk factors for cancer development in the Mediterranean region, to implement risk assessment and preventive programs and to design efficient national cancer surveillance systems.

Dr. Zavras obtained his DMD degree from the University of Athens (1991), a certificate of advanced studies in Pediatric Dentistry from Tufts University (1993), a certificate of advanced studies in Dental Public Health from Harvard University (1995) and a certificate in Oral Epidemiology (1998) from Harvard University.

He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health since 2003.

Dr. Zavras received a Masters of Science degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health (1994). Subsequently he received a Doctorate of Medical Science in Biology/Epidemiology from the Harvard Medical School (1999). He has significant public policy experience at the international level. He has represented the European Commission at the World Health Organization during the FCTC inter-governmental negotiations, and has served in multiple international public health committees (EC, WHO). In 2004 he represented the Hellenic Ministry of Health to the World Health Assembly. Dr. Zavras is ex President of the International Society for the Prevention of Tobacco Induced Diseases and current Chair of the Oral Cancer Partnership. He serves on Harvard’s Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility and on the Medical School’s Clinical Translational Sciences Award committee.

Fields of Interest

Cancer Prevention
Molecular Epidemiology of Cancer
Disparities research
Pharmacogenetics
Osteonecrosis
Diabetes
Pediatric caries
Periodontal disease & Stroke

Selected Publications

Zavras AI, Douglass CW, Joshipura K, Wu T, Laskaris G, Petridou E, Dokianakis G, Segas J, Lefantzis D, Nomikos P, Wang Y-F, Diehl SR. Smoking and alcohol in the etiology of oral cancer: gender-specific risk profiles in the South of Greece. European Journal of Cancer – B .Oral Oncology 2001;37(1):28-35

Zavras AI, Wu T, Laskaris G, Wang YF, Cartsos V, Segas J, Lefantzis D, Joshipura K, Douglass CW, Diehl SR. Interaction between a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the Alcohol Dehydrogenase 3 Gene, alcohol consumption and oral cancer risk. International Journal of Cancer 2002:97:526-30

Pitiphat W, Wu T, Douglass C, Diehl SR, Zavras AI. Factors associated with delay in the diagnosis of oral cancer. Journal of Dental Research 2002;81(3): 192-97

Petridou E, Zavras AI, Diehl SR, Lefatzis D, Laskaris G, Segas J, Desypris N, Douglass C, Trichopoulos D. The role of diet and specific micronutrients in oral cancer. Cancer 2002;94(11):2981-2988

Zavras AI, Tsakos G, Economou C, Kyriopoulos J. Using DEA to evaluate efficiency and formulate policy in a greek primary care network. Journal of Medical Systems 2002;26(4):285-292

Zavras AI, Pitiphat W, Lam A, Wu T, Cartsos V, Douglass CW, Diehl SR. IGF2R-167 genotype increases the risk of oral squamous cell carcinoma in humans. Cancer Research 2003;63:296–297

Zavras AI, Andreopoulos N, Zavras D, Cartsos V, Katsikeris N, Vamvakidis A. Cost benefit of an oral cancer early detection program using high risk screening and tolonium chloride. Pharmacoekonomia 2004;1:11-20

Zavras AI, Douglass CW, Gorgoulis V. The role of IGF2R in carcinogenesis. Nature Rev Cancer 2004, Vol.4(10) – printed as online correspondence

Maserejian NN, Zavras A.I. Genetics of tobacco use. Tobacco Induced Diseases 2004;2(2):81-102.

Found at: http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/dentistry/oral_biology/research/ptid/journal/volume2/volume2_pdfs/TID_v2iss2jun04_81-102.pdf

BrennanP, LewisS, HashibeM, BellD, BoffettaP, BouchardyC, CaporasoN, ChenC, CoutelleC, DiehlC, HayesRB, OlshanA, Schwartz SM, SturgisE, Wei Q, Zavras A.I, Benhamou S.
Pooled-analysis of alcohol dehydrogenase genotypes and head and neck cancer – a Human Genetics (HuGE) review. American Journal of Epidemiology 2004 Jan 1;159(1):1-16

Zavras AI. Post-marketing drug safety in the era of genomic medicine.
J Dent Res 2005 Feb;84(2):105-6.

Zavras AI, Zhu S. Bisphosphonates are associated with increased risk for jaw surgery in medical claims data: is it osteonecrosis? J Oral Maxilof Surgery 2006 2006 Jun;64(6):917-23

Maserejian NN, Joshipura KJ, Rosner BA, Giovannucci E, Zavras AI. Prospective Study of Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Oral Premalignant Lesions in Men. Cancer Epi Biomarkers Prev 2006 Apr;15(4):774-81

Maserejian NN, Giovannucci E, Zavras AI, Rosner B, Joshipura K. Prospective Study of Fruits and Vegetables and Risk of Oral Premalignant Lesion in Men. Am J Epidemiol 2006 Sep 15;164(6):556-66

Griffin TJ, Cheung WS, Zavras AI, Damoulis PD. Postoperative complications following gingival augmentation procedures. Amer J Periodontology 2006; 77(12):2070-80

Harvard School of Dental Medicine
188 LONGWOOD AVENUE
BOSTON, MA 02115