Wendy London, PhD
| Department | Hematology/Oncology |
 |
| Hospital Title | Director of Biostatistics, Medicine, Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology; Director of Clinical Translational Investigation Program (CTIP), Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Dana Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DFCHCC) | |
| Academic Title | Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Medicine, HMS | |
| Phone | 617-632-4895 | |
| Fax | ||
| Wendy London | ||
| Location |
450 Brookline Ave., Dana 3 Boston, MA 02215 |
Research Overview
Dr. London has three primary research interests: neuroblastoma, prognostic stratification, and design of clinical trials. Her findings on the effect of age on neuroblastoma outcome resulted in a reduction of therapy for patients 12-18 months old. In the consensus efforts of the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG), she is the chair the Statistics Committee. Dr. London and her committee assembled the largest neuroblastoma database in the world (n=11,500). For prognostic stratification of this database, she performed survival tree regression, whereby 16 pre-treatment groups were determined, each statistically and/or clinically unique, accepted worldwide as building blocks for future trials. In this project, Dr. London eliminated the redundancy of histopathologic classification and age in risk stratification. As the Lead Statistician for the Neuroblastoma Committee of the Children?s Oncology Group, Dr. London's collaborative neuroblastoma research includes: a) therapy reduction for low-risk and intermediate-risk neuroblastoma; b) demonstrating no role for purging in high-risk neuroblastoma; and, c) demonstrating a 20% improvement in 2-year event-free survival for high-risk neuroblastoma patients treated post-transplant with cytokines and chimeric 14.18 antibody (immunotherapy). Dr. London has performed statistical methodological research in the design of clinical trials. She developed new methods for stratified Phase II designs, now widely used in multi-center trials for small, heterogeneous cohorts. Dr. London performed a novel application of casual inference methodology in a Phase II trial in order to improve the ability to interpret long-term outcome despite confounding by off-protocol therapy.
About Wendy London, PhD
Dr. London received a PhD in Biostatistics from Virginia Commonwealth University, She is a member of the American Statistical Association, International Society for Pediatric Oncology, and American Society for Clinical Oncology. In 2006, Dr. London received the Audrey Evans Prize for Outstanding Paper in Clinical Research, Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association.
At BCH and DFCHCC, Dr. London directs approximately 30 members of the CTIP staff, and 3 members of the Biostatistics Program in the conduct of collaborative research and to provide infrastructure for the operations of the Division.
Key Publications
- Bagatell R, Rumcheva P, London WB, Cohn SL, Look AT, Brodeur GM, Frantz C, Joshi V, Thorner PS, Rao PV, Castleberry RP, Bowman LC. Outcomes of children with intermediate-risk neuroblastoma after treatment stratified by MYCN status and tumor cell ploidy. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2005 Dec 1;23(34):8819-27.
- London WB, Chang MN. One- and two-stage designs for stratified Phase II clinical trials, Statistics in Medicine 2005 15;24(17):2597-2611.
- Cohn SL*, Pearson ADJ*, London WB, Monclair T, Ambros PF, Faldum A, Hero B, Iehara T, Machin D, Mosseri V, Matthay KK, for the INRG Task Force. The International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) Classification System. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2009 Jan 10;27(2):289-97. Epub 2008 Dec 1. [* = share first authorship]
- Hunsberger S, Albert P, London WB. A finite mixture survival model to characterize risk groups of neuroblastoma. Statistics in Medicine 2009 Apr 15;28(8):1301-14.
- London WB, Frantz FN, Campbell LA, Seeger RC, Brumback BA, Cohn SL, Matthay KK, Castleberry RP, Diller L. Phase II Randomized Comparison of Topotecan plus Cyclophosphamide vs. Topotecan Alone in Children with Recurrent or Refractory Neuroblastoma: A Children’s Oncology Group Study. Journal of Clinical Oncology 2010 Aug 20:28(24):3808-15. PMID: 20660830
- Yu AL, Gilman AL, Ozkaynak MF, London WB, Kreissman SG, Chen HX, Smith M, Anderson B, Villablanca JG, Matthay KK, Shimada H, Grupp SA, Seeger R, Reynolds CP, Buxton A, Reisfeld R, Gillies SD, Cohn SL, Maris JM, Sondel PM, for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG). Anti-GD2 Antibody with GM-CSF, IL2 and Isotretinoin for Neuroblastoma. New England Journal of Medicine. 2010 Sep 30:363(14): 1324-34. [Faculty 1000 selection]
- Moroz V, Machin D, Faldum A, Hero B, Iehara T, Mosseri V, Ladenstein R, De Bernardi B, Rubie H, Berthold F, Matthay KK, Monclair T, Ambros PF, Pearson ADJ, Cohn SL, London WB. Changes over three decades in outcome and the prognostic influence of age-at-diagnosis in young patients with neuroblastoma: A report from the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Project. European Journal of Cancer. 2011 Mar; 47(4):561-71. Epub 2010 Nov 26. PMID: 21112770
- London WB*, Castel V*, Monclair T, Ambros PF, Pearson ADJ, Cohn SL, Berthold F, Nakagawara A, Ladenstein RL, Iehara T, Matthay KK. Clinical and biologic features predictive of survival after relapse of neuroblastoma: A report from the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) Project. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2011 Aug 20;29(24):3286-92. Epub 2011 Jul 18. [* = share first authorship]
