Current Research Interests
Dr. Zauber’s primary research focus is identifying and assessing ways to prevent and reduce the burden of colorectal cancer incidence and mortality, specifically through screening and surveillance. Her work involves population-based statistical modeling and precision medicine to identify effective and cost-effective screening strategies in order to better inform health policy and randomized clinical trials.
Dr. Zauber leads the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network colorectal group, a multi-center group of microsimulation modelers sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. Her team conducted decision analyses for the 2008 and 2016 United States Preventive Services Task Force colorectal cancer screening recommendations on optimal age to begin and end screening, screening intervals, and screening modality. She was the Principal Investigator for the National Colonoscopy Study, a multi-center randomized controlled trial for screening colonoscopy and fecal occult blood test, and a co-Principal Investigator on the NCI PROSPR I consortium. Dr. Zauber led the special section in The Annual report to the Nation on Cancer, which featured how microsimulation modeling contributed to predicting a more than 50% reduction in colorectal cancer mortality over the past 25 years, and how increased screening utilization can provide continued reductions in mortality. She also demonstrated that removal of adenomas, the precursor lesion of colorectal cancer, reduces both incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer. Recent publications include decision analyses for beginning colorectal cancer screening at age 40 for cystic fibrosis patients, assessment of the impact of a copay loophole on colonoscopy screening for Medicare beneficiaries, and projection of colorectal cancer incidence and mortality reductions if 80% of US population were screened by 2018.
She works closely with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and American Cancer Society on colorectal cancer screening and prevention, and the (cost-)effectiveness of available and novel screening tests in average and genetically predisposed (high risk) populations. She served on the advisory panel for the colorectal cancer screening recommendations for the International Agency for Cancer Research. Additionally, she continues to serve as lead biostatistician on many national and international studies including the National Polyp Study, the Nordic-European Initiative on Colorectal Cancer, and a pilot study on screening in Nigeria. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Gastroenterology Association.
