I have played a long-standing role in supporting fellow researchers (basic scientists and clinicians), medical residents and fellows, in understanding epidemiologic methods and biostatistical modeling, including development of robust study designs and analytic plans. I hope to provide my expertise and knowledge to a wide array of research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center to help fulfill its visions and goals.
I earned my PhD in Epidemiology (2000) and BA in Integrative Biology (1993) from the University of California, Berkeley. I also hold a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from San Diego State University (1997). I sit on the Editorial Board for Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases, and serve as an ad hoc peer reviewer for several journals, including the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. Since 2014, I have served as a peer reviewer for grant applications to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, and since 2012, I have sat on the Heroes Curing Childhood Cancer Gala Committee at Children’s National Medical Center, to help raise funds to support psychosocial services for their Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.
In 2012, I became a patient advocate for the Alliance for Childhood Cancer and a Board Member of the American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO), meeting with Congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, to help champion key pieces of legislation, including the “Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research” (STAR) Act (Public Law 115-180). I also informed an IOM report on the importance of improving palliative care for childhood cancer patients and their families.
Research Information
Research Interests
My predominant research focus has been on the identification and validation of biomarkers and assay panels to forecast prostate cancer outcomes, with appreciation for examining health disparities, and considering quality of life trajectories for cancer survivors. In my previous position, I was responsible for a clinical data repository of ~30,000 male military health care beneficiaries, biopsied for prostate cancer, whose data are linked to a biospecimen bank. These programmatic resources helped me to generate and participate in multiple federally-funded grant awards, as well as exciting extramural collaborations with both academic and industry partners. As a highlight, my leadership role in the validation study of the OncotypeDx® 17-gene panel for predicting prostate cancer progression, culminated in a presentation at the 2014 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) meeting in Madrid, Spain and publication of our findings in European Urology (Cullen et al., July 2015).