Ruth Pfeiffer, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Pfeiffer is a tenured senior investigator in the Biostatistics Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG), National Cancer Institute (NCI). She received an M.S. degree in applied mathematics from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, and an M.A. degree in applied statistics and a Ph.D. in mathematical statistics—both from the University of Maryland, College Park. At NCI she is an active collaborator on many research projects and mentors several fellows and junior investigators. Her research focuses on statistical methods for risk prediction, problems arising in molecular and genetic epidemiologic studies, and the analysis of data from electronic medical records. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, and an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Research Interests

• Methods for the design and analysis of observational studies
• Methods for high-dimensional data
• Risk prediction: Methods and applications

Book

• Absolute Risk: Methods and Applications in Clinical Management and Public Health. Pfeiffer RM, Gail MH. Chapman & Hall. Boca Raton, FL 2018.

Software

• Breast, Endometrial, and Ovarian Risk Assessment Macros
• Colon Cancer Risk Assessment SAS Macro
• Colon Cancer Risk Assessment Gauss Program
• Thyroid Cancer Risk Assessment R Package
• R code to compute least squares and maximum likelihood estimation of sufficient reductions in regressions with matrix-valued predictors
• R code that computes odds ratios for case-control studies with incident and prevalent cases and prospective follow-up information on cases after disease onset
• Code that finds linear combinations of compositional data that contain sufficient information about an outcome
• Code that computes small sample bias corrected hazard ratio estimates from linear excess relative risk models using matched case-control study data