Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government
Email

Biography

Dr. Torres-Saavedra joined the Biometric Research Program (BRP) at the National Cancer Institute in 2024. He currently serves as the liaison to NCI’s Cancer Imaging Program (CIP), providing statistical leadership, design expertise, and oversight for NCI-sponsored imaging studies. In addition, he serves as the CTEP statistician overseeing multicenter head and neck (H&N) clinical trials sponsored by NCI and conducted by the NCTN groups. He is an ex officio member of the ECOG-ACRIN Data Monitoring Committee and the NCI Cancer Imaging Steering Committee, and a member of the NCI H&N Steering Committee, contributing to strategic planning and scientific review of imaging-based studies and clinical trials in H&N cancer.

Prior to joining NCI, Dr. Torres-Saavedra was a Manager Biostatistician at the Center for Research and Innovation at the American College of Radiology (ACR), where he also served as Senior Statistician for the NRG Oncology Head and Neck Core Committee. In this role, he collaborated closely with statisticians, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, surgeons, and other oncology specialists to design and conduct NCI-sponsored phase I–IV multi-center clinical trials. As head of the statistical team for the head and neck portfolio, he led studies from concept development and protocol design through data analysis and publication.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Torres-Saavedra was an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, where he contributed to research, teaching, and mentorship in statistics and applied mathematics.

Education

  • Ph.D., North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, US
  • M.S., University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR, US
  • B.S., National University of Colombia, Bogotá D.C., Colombia

Scientific Publications

  1. Machtay M, Torres-Saavedra PA, Thorstad W, Nguyen-Tân PF, Siu LL, Holsinger FC, El-Naggar A, Chung C, Cmelak A, Burtness B, Bednarz G, Quon H, Breen SL, Gwede CK, Dicker AP, Yao M, Jordan RC, Dorth J, Lee N, Chan JW, Dunlap N, Bar-Ad V, Stokes WA, Chakravarti A, Sher D, Rao S, Harris J, Yom SS, Le QT; NRG Oncology RTOG 0920 Collaborating Team; TransSCOT Consortium. Postoperative Radiotherapy ± Cetuximab for Intermediate-Risk Head and Neck Cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2025 Jan 22:JCO2401829. doi: 10.1200/JCO-24-01829. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39841939.
  2. Loren K Mell, Pedro A Torres-Saavedra, Stuart J Wong, Julie A Kish, Steven S Chang, Richard C Jordan, Tian Liu, Minh Tam Truong, Eric W Winquist, Vinita Takiar, Trisha Wise-Draper, Jared R Robbins, Cristina P Rodriguez, Musaddiq J Awan, Beth M Beadle, Christina Henson, Samir Narayan, Sharon A Spencer, Steven Powell, Neal Dunlap, Assuntina G Sacco, Kenneth Shung Hu, Henry S Park, Julie E Bauman, Jonathan Harris, Sue S Yom, Quynh-Thu Le, Radiotherapy with cetuximab or durvalumab for locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer in patients with a contraindication to cisplatin (NRG-HN004): an open-label, multicentre, parallel-group, randomised, phase 2/3 trial. The Lancet Oncology, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(24)00507-2
  3. Li Guan, Pedro A. Torres-Saavedra, Xiaobei Zhao, Michael B. Major, Brittany J. Holmes, Ngan K. Nguyen, Parasakthy Kumaravelu, Tim Hodge, Maximilian Diehn, Jose Zevallos, F. Christopher Holsinger, Bahman Emami, Richard C. Jordan, Michele C. Hayward, Stephen M. Sagar, William Morrison, Christopher Schultz, Jimmy J. Caudell, Christopher U. Jones, Scott V. Bratman, Thomas J. Galloway, Daniel J. Ma, Sue S. Yom, Mahesh Kudrimoti, Harold E. Kim, Jonathan Harris, Quynh-Thu Le, D. Neil Hayes; Association between Locoregional Failure and NFE2L2/KEAP1/CUL3 Mutations in NRG/RTOG 9512: A Randomized Trial of Radiation Fractionation in T2N0 Glottic Cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2025; https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-2334
  4. Wong SJ, Torres-Saavedra PA, Saba NF, et al. Radiotherapy Plus Cisplatin With or Without Lapatinib for Non–Human Papillomavirus Head and Neck Carcinoma: A Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2023;9(11):1565–1573. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.3809
  5. J.J. Caudell, P. Torres-Saavedra, D.I. Rosenthal, R. Axelrod, P.F. Nguyen-Tan, E. Sherman, R.S. Weber, J.M. Galvin, A.K. El-Naggar, A.A. Konski, A. Trotti, N.E. Dunlap, G. Shenouda, A.K. Singh, J.J. Beitler, A.A. Garsa, M. Birrer, A.S. Garden, T.S. Herman, Q.T. Le. Long-Term Update of NRG Oncology RTOG 0522: A Randomized Phase III Trial of Concurrent Radiation and Cisplatin with or without Cetuximab in Locoregionally  Advanced Head and Neck Cancer. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, Volume 106, Issue 5, 2020, Pages 1116-1117, ISSN 0360-3016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2019.11.393

For the full list check the Google Scholar list of publications.

  • Reviewed:
Email