Questions in Cancer Research: What Are the Most Pressing Statistical Problems?

• Activity Number: 405
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2013 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section
• Author(s): Gary L. Rosner*+ and Ross Prentice*+ and Kim-Ahn Do*+ and Bradley McIntosh Broom*+
• Companies: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Johns Hopkins and MD Anderson Cancer Center and MD Anderson
• Keywords: cancer ; research questions ; broad issues ; recent advances

Abstract

For the past few years, NCI has been leading, with input from the research community, the Provocative Questions project, which compiled a list of important but difficult questions that need to be addressed to drive cancer research forward. These are questions that "address broad issues," "build on recent advances," and "take into consideration the likelihood of success." In this session, presenters will describe on a similar list of questions, but will focus on the statistical questions that need to be addressed for cancer research.

To inform both NCI and statisticians who may be looking for important problems, the speakers will describe, at a high level, the most pressing statistical problems that they see in cancer research. As leaders of statistical groups at large cancer centers, each of the speakers has a broad view over the quantitative challenges that cancer biologists and clinicians are facing and over what their faculty choose to research. The speakers will share this insight into which statistical problems have the potential to make a great impact in cancer research.