Susan Halabi

Susan Halabi is a professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke University, known for her research on prostate cancer.

As a member of the data safety monitoring board for a study of the anti-prostate cancer effects of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga), she argued that stopping the study early had prevented the study from accurately determining the effectiveness of the drug, and possibly made it appear to be more effective than it actually was. She also took part in a study showing that, when prostate cancer has reached the point of spreading to other parts of the body, the parts that it spreads to can be used to predict the survival rate from the disease.

Halabi earned her Ph.D. in biometry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1994, and joined the Duke faculty in 1996. She grew up in a family of engineers in Lebanon, where she was one of the first students in the undergraduate biostatistics program at the American University of Beirut. She was named a fellow of the Society for Clinical Trials in 2014, "for her outstanding leadership in cancer clinical trials and prognostic development, ... educational activities, and for dedicated service on national review committees, DSMBs and scientific advisory committees and for the SCT". She was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2015.