The Kensler Lab generates high-quality epidemiologic evidence to improve cancer screening, elucidate multilevel drivers of cancer health disparities, and examine cardiometabolic health during cancer survivorship, with a focus on prostate and breast cancers.
Dr. Kensler's research program is focused on generating evidence to improve cancer screening and reduce the disproportionate burden of cancer in marginalized communities. His work integrates population-based cohort studies, real-world electronic health record and insurance claims data, and tumor molecular profiling to examine questions spanning cancer prevention, early detection, and survivorship, with a focus on prostate and breast cancers.
His research is organized around three interconnected lines of investigation: understanding how screening policies and structural factors shape patterns of cancer detection and clinical management across racial and ethnic groups; examining how neighborhood socioeconomic conditions, healthcare access barriers, and social determinants of health drive disparities in cancer screening and care; and investigating how molecular and pharmacologic factors influence cancer risk and outcomes across the continuum from prevention to survivorship.
Biography
Kevin Kensler, ScD, MHS is an Assistant Professor of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. He received his Doctor of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018 and completed postdoctoral training in cancer epidemiology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Distinctions:
Young Investigator Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation (2025)
NIH K99/R00 Career Development Award, National Cancer Institute (2020–2025)
NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Cancer Institute (2019–2020)
NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship, National Cancer Institute (2015–2018)
Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health, Alpha Chapter (2013)
Kensler KH, Awasthi S, Alshalalfa M, Trock BJ, Freedland SJ, Freeman MR, You S, Mahal BA, Den RB, Dicker AP, Karnes RJ, Klein EA, Lal P, Liu Y, Davicioni E, Rayford W, Yamoah K, Rebbeck TR. Variation in Molecularly Defined Prostate Tumor Subtypes by Self-identified Race. Eur Urol Open Sci. 2022 Apr 26;40:19-26. doi: 10.1016/j.euros.2022.03.014. PMID: 35638091; PMCID: PMC9142751.
