Research Interests

Dr. Aberle's primary research interest is in lung cancer and the applications of imaging for early detection, prognosis, prediction, and treatment response assessment. She has a strong background in quantitative image analysis, including computer aided lung cancer detection and nodule characterization.

Dr. Aberle is the UCLA Co-PI to the NCI-funded five-member consortium, the Lung Imaging Database Consor- tium (LIDC), which is building an annotated lung imaging database for the use of computer added diagnosis (CAD) development.

Dr. Aberle is the national PI for the NCI-sponsored ACRIN-National Lung Screening Trial, which is evaluating the benefits of two screening tests - low dose helical CT versus chest radiography - by comparing lung cancer mortality rates in individuals at high risk of lung cancer.

Finally, Dr. Aberle is actively engaged in informatics research and education, and specifically, the use of information technologies in oncology.

Dr. Aberle is a faculty member in two NIH-sponsored UCLA training programs, including:

• The UCLA Biomedical Physics Training Program
• The UCLA Medical and Imaging Informatics Training Program

Current Research Projects

• National Lung Screening Trial (NLST)
  National PI / UCLA Co-PI
  The NLST is a joint collaboration between ACRIN and the Lung Screening Study and has enrolled over 50,000 older smokers that have been screened annually with either chest radiographs or low dose helical CT. Medical outcomes will be collected on these participants through 2009 to determine differences in lung cancer specific mortality between the two screening technologies. The ACRIN NLST grant addresses several additional screening-related questions, including the effect of screening on quality of life, a formal cost effectiveness analysis, the impact of screening on smoking behaviors and beliefs, and the creation of a biospecimen archive that will be used for molecular research into biomarkers of lung cancer.
• Lung Imaging Database Consortium (LIDC)
  Site Co-PI
  Lung Imaging Database Consortium (LIDC) supports a consortium of five institutions to develop consensus guidelines for a spiral CT lung image resource and is constructing a database of spiral CT lung images. The investigators are creating a set of guidelines and metrics for database use and developing a database as a test-bed and showcase for those methods. The database will be available to researchers and users through the Internet and will have wide utility as a research, teaching, and training resource.
• Lung Cancer Chemoprevention with Celecoxib in Ex-Smokers
  Site Investigator
  This is a Phase II, randomized controlled chemoprevention study of Celecoxib in former heavy smokers at high risk of primary of second primary lung cancer

Selected Awards & Honors

• 2006: Certificate of Outstanding Leadership
  American College of Radiology Imaging Network
• 2005: Magna Cum Laude Award
  Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Contrast Enhancement Maps for Pulmonary Nodule Characterization
  17th European Congress of Radiology, Vienna, Austria
• 2002: Certificate of Outstanding Contribution
  American College of Radiology Imaging Network
• 2001: Certificate of Outstanding Contribution
  American College of Radiology Imaging Network