STAGE ISSS: Li Hsu

Join us for the next instalment of the STAGE International Speaker Seminar Series (ISSS) with

Li Hsu, PhD

Affiliate Professor, Biostatistics
Member, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Free Hybrid (In person/Online) Event | Registration Required

Talk Title:

Advancing Cancer Risk Prediction across Diverse Populations: Polygenic Risk Scores and Beyond

Abstract:

Predicting the risk of developing cancer is of significant interest in clinical practice. In the last decades, a vast amount of data on epidemiological and especially, genome-wide genotypes, have been amassed, providing valuable opportunities to improve risk prediction. In this talk, I will address two topics. Firstly, I will discuss our efforts to develop polygenic risk score (PRS) based on genome-wide genetic data to predict colorectal cancer risk across diverse populations. This research underscores the need to include non-European ancestry to improve risk prediction and promote equity in the clinical application of PRS. Secondly, when a prediction model developed within one cohort is applied to others, discrepancies between cohorts can lead to the model under- or over-estimating the risk in the target population. I will introduce a weighted estimating equation approach for recalibrating the projected risk in the targeted population by adjusting the baseline risk, leveraging the knowledge and summary information of overall disease rate and risk factors from the target population. I demonstrate our works through applications to the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO), as well as several large-scale, population-based cohorts.

Speaker Profile:

Li Hsu, PhD, is a Professor in the Biostatistics Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and an Affiliate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington. She actively develops statistical methods and engages in collaborative research in observational studies of cancer and other chronic diseases, with a focus on the analysis of genetic, molecular epidemiological data and survival outcomes. Her specific areas of interest include absolute risk estimation and risk prediction, genome-wide association studies, gene-environment interaction studies involving common and rare variants, and the integration of diverse data sets. Additionally, she is interested in evaluating the performance of risk prediction models and the cost-effectiveness of screening strategies in large-scale cohorts and real-world settings. As the lead biostatistician of the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium (GECCO), the largest consortium for colorectal cancer, she has been leading the efforts in developing and evaluating genome-wide risk prediction models for colorectal cancer in diverse populations. Dr. Hsu holds the Ross L. Prentice Professorship at the University of Washington and is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Sponsors:

CANSSI Ontario STAGE (STAGE) is a training program in genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics housed at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health. It operates with financial and in-kind support from CANSSI Ontario, an extra-departmental unit in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T.

STAGE would like to thank our generous seminar sponsors!
For a complete list of sponsors, please see here.

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