F. Lennie Wong, PhD
Duarte, CA
United States
Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope
Dr. Wong is an applied biostatistician with over 30 years of experience in cancer survivorship research and more recently in comparative- and cost-effectiveness studies. Since 2006, she has been part of the Long-Term Follow-Up Program at City of Hope which follows over 10,000 patients who received hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) there. She has analyzed and published results on the relationships between patient/disease characteristics and treatment exposures on outcomes (survival, complications, quality of life) in HCT survivors. She was the principal statistician in a study that examined racial difference in adherence to a 2-year daily oral maintenance therapy in children and adolescents treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and whether this variation could explain racial differences in outcomes. Dr. Wong’s expertise extends to health services research. She examined the outcomes and cost-effectiveness of lifelong echocardiographic screening, recommended by the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Guidelines, for early detection of asymptomatic heart failure in at-risk childhood cancer survivors. The study results helped revise the current COG Guidelines. She has been conducting a cost-effectiveness study of the COG Guidelines recommendation for breast cancer screening in chest-irradiated female Hodgkin Lymphoma survivors. Two manuscripts are in preparation. The findings will provide important information to help refine the COG Guidelines.