Hong Zhu, Ph.D.

Dr. Hong Zhu was formerly a tenured Assoicate Professor at UT Southwestern and Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. She was on faculty at UT Southwestern from September, 2013 to October, 2022. Currently, Dr. Zhu is a Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine, and Director of UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center Biostatistics Shared Resource. Dr. Zhu obtained her PhD degree in Biostatistics from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2010. She was an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biostatistics at The Ohio State University College of Public Health from 2010 to 2013. 

Dr. Zhu’s methodological research interests include design and analysis of explanatory and pragmatic clinical trials, statistical methods for complex survival data (biased sampling, semi-competing risks, multivariate survival data), and causal inference. Her work is inspired by and applied to biomedical and clinical studies. Dr. Zhu’s collaborative research interests include basic, clinical, translational, and population sciences studies in areas including cancer, chronic and infectious diseases. 

Dr. Zhu's research work has been supported by extramural and intramural funding. She received a PCORI Methodology Award to improve methods for design and analysis of comparative effectiveness research (CER) with complex observational healthcare data and a NSF Award to develop a dynamic modeling framework and risk prediction tool with complex observational semi-competing risks data in 2022, the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center Pilot Award to tackle pragmatic design issues in cluster randomized trials in 2018, and the Center for Translational Medicine Pilot Award to develop novel analytical methods for CER in 2016. She has served as Biostatistics and Data Management Core Co-Director for an NIH P20 SPORE Planning Award on cancer health disparities and Co-I on multiple large federally or state funded grants. 

Undergraduate

Univ of Sci and Tech of China (2005), Statistics

Undergraduate

University of Science Technolo (2005), Statistics

Graduate School

Johns Hopkins University (2010), Biostatistics

• Analysis of Complex Survival Data
• Causal Inference
• Comparative Effectiveness Research
• Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials
• Health Outcomes Research
• Observational Studies using Large Healthcare Databases

Featured Publications

Comparative effectiveness of primary radiotherapy versus surgery in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in elderly patients: a SEER-Medicare analysis

Sher D, Yan J, Pham N, Khan S, Sumer B and Zhu H Oral Oncology 2019 88: 18-26

Sample size considerations for stratified cluster randomization design with binary outcomes and varying cluster size

Xu X, Zhu H* and Ahn C Statistics in Medicine 2019 DOI: 10.1002/sim.8175 *Corresponding author

Comparison of overall survival between preoperative chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy for resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Mokdad A, Minter R, Yopp A, Porembka M, Wang S, Zhu H, Augustine M, Mansour J, Choti M and Polanco P Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 2018 16(12): 1468-1475

Association of Adjuvant Chemotherapy With Overall Survival in Patients With Rectal Cancer and Pathologic Complete Response Following Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy and Resection

Polanco P, Mokdad A, Zhu H, Choti M and Huerta S JAMA Oncology 2018 doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.0231 4(7): 938-943 Accepted

TNF drives an adaptive response that mediates resistance to EGFR inhibition in lung cancer

Gong K, Guo G, Gerber D, Gao B, Peyton M, Huang C, Minna J, Hatanpaa K, Kernstine K, Cai L, Xie Y, Zhu H, Fattah F, Zhang S, Takahashi M, Mukherjee B, Burma S, Dowell J, Dao K, Papadimitrakopoulou V, Olivas V, Bivona T, Zhao D and Habib A Journal of Clinical Investigation 2018 128(6): 2500-2518. doi.org/10.1172/JCI96148

Statistical justification of expansion cohorts in phase I cancer trials

Mokdad A, Xie X, Zhu H, Gerber D and Heitjan D Cancer 2018 124: 3339-3345. Accepted

Optimizing perforator selection: a multivariable analysis of predictors for fat necrosis and abdominal morbidity in DIEP flap breast reconstruction

Hembd A, Zhu H, Teotia S and Haddock N Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2018 142(3):583-592. doi: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000004631 In Press

Epidemiology and survival of esophageal cancer patients in an American cohort.

Nassri A, Zhu H, Muftah M and Ramzan Z Cureus 2018 10(4) e2507. doi:10.7759/cureus.2507.

LILRB4 signaling in leukemia cells mediates T cell suppression and tumor infiltration

Deng M, Gui X, Kim J,...,Zhu H,...,Zheng J, Zhang N and Zhang C Nature 2018 Accepted 562: 605-609

Effects of program scale-up on time to resolution for patients with abnormal screening mammography results

Lee S, Higashi R, Sanders J, Zhu H, Inrig S, Mejias C, Argenbright K and Tiro J Cancer Causes & Control 2018 doi: doi.org/10.1007/s10552-018-1074-4.

• Statistics in Epidemiology Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Travel Award
  The American Statistical Association (2017)
• Cancer Biostatistics Workshop Travel Award
  American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (2015)
• Statistics in Epidemiology Young Investigator Award
  The American Statistical Association (2012)
• ENAR Distinguished Student Paper Award
  International Biometric Society (2010)
• Statistics in Epidemiology Young Investigator Award
  The American Statistical Association (2010)
• Jian-Ping Hsu Memorial Scholarship
  International Chinese Statistical Association (2009)
• Statistics in Epidemiology Student Paper Award
  The American Statistical Association (2009)
• Guo Moruo Presidential Award
  Highest Honor, University of Science and Technology of China (2004)
• Outstanding Student Scholarship
  First Prize, University of Science and Technology of China (2001-2005)