Biostatistical Applications In Cancer Research

Biostatistics is defined as much by its application as it is by theory. This book provides an introduction to biostatistical applications in modern cancer research that is both accessible and valuable to the cancer biostatistician or to the cancer researcher, learning biostatistics. The topical areas include active areas of the application of biostatistics to modern cancer research: survival analysis, screening, diagnostics, spatial analysis and the analysis of microarray data. Biostatistics is an essential component of basic and clinical cancer research. The text, authored by distinguished figures in the field, addresses clinical issues in statistical analysis. The spectrum of topics discussed ranges from fundamental methodology to clinical and translational applications.

This research monograph discusses newly developed mathematical models and methods that provide biologically meaningful inferences from data on cancer latency produced by follow-up and discrete surveillance studies. Methods for designing optimal strategies of cancer surveillance are systematically presented for the first time in this book. It offers new approaches to the stochastic description of tumor latency, employs biologically-based models for making statistical inference from data on tumor recurrence and also discusses methods of statistical analysis of data resulting from discrete surveillance strategies. It also offers insight into the role of prognostic factors based on the interpretation of their effects in terms of parameters endowed with biological meaning, as well as methods for designing optimal schedules of cancer screening and surveillance. Last but not least, it discusses survival models allowing for cure rates and the choice of optimal treatment based on covariate information, and presents numerous examples of real data analysis. Contents:IntroductionMathematical Description of Tumor LatencyRegression Analysis of Tumor Recurrence DataThreshold Models of Tumor LatencyStatistical Analysis of Discrete Cancer SurveillanceOptimal Strategies of Cancer SurveillanceMinimum Delay Time ApproachOptimal Strategies of Cancer SurveillanceMinimum Cost Approach Readership: Students and researchers in biomathematics and biostatistics. keywords:Mathematical Modeling;Statistical Analysis;Optimization;Carcinogenesis;Tumor Recurrence;Tumor Detection;Cancer surveillance;Cancer Screening;Cancer Survival “The book is mathematically very clever although it uses only occasional techniques beyond the basic probability and statistics … it clearly demonstrates that new biomedical knowledge does emerge from the stochastic modeling of cancer development … this interesting book is a noticeable event in biomathematics and biostatistics in general, and in carcinogenesis modeling in particular.” Bull. Math. Biology

Multivariate analysis is a mainstay of statistical tools in the analysis of biomedical data. It concerns with associating data matrices of n rows by p columns, with rows representing samples (or patients) and columns attributes of samples, to some response variables, e.g., patients outcome. Classically, the sample size n is much larger than p, the number of variables. The properties of statistical models have been mostly discussed under the assumption of fixed p and infinite n. The advance of biological sciences and technologies has revolutionized the process of investigations of cancer. The biomedical data collection has become more automatic and more extensive. We are in the era of p as a large fraction of n, and even much larger than n. Take proteomics as an example. Although proteomic techniques have been researched and developed for many decades to identify proteins or peptides uniquely associated with a given disease state, until recently this has been mostly a laborious process, carried out one protein at a time. The advent of high throughput proteome-wide technologies such as liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy make it possible to generate proteomic signatures that facilitate rapid development of new strategies for proteomics-based detection of disease. This poses new challenges and calls for scalable solutions to the analysis of such high dimensional data. In this volume, we will present the systematic and analytical approaches and strategies from both biostatistics and bioinformatics to the analysis of correlated and high-dimensional data.

This book presents the state of the art of biostatistical methods and their applications in clinical oncology. Many methodologies established today in biostatistics have been brought about through its applications to the design and analysis of oncology clinical studies. This field of oncology, now in the midst of evolution owing to rapid advances in biotechnologies and cancer genomics, is becoming one of the most promising disease fields in the shift toward personalized medicine. Modern developments of diagnosis and therapeutics of cancer have also been continuously fueled by recent progress in establishing the infrastructure for conducting more complex, large-scale clinical trials and observational studies. The field of cancer clinical studies therefore will continue to provide many new statistical challenges that warrant further progress in the methodology and practice of biostatistics. This book provides a systematic coverage of various stages of cancer clinical studies. Topics from modern cancer clinical trials include phase I clinical trials for combination therapies, exploratory phase II trials with multiple endpoints/treatments, and confirmative biomarker-based phase III trials with interim monitoring and adaptation. It also covers important areas of cancer screening, prognostic analysis, and the analysis of large-scale molecular data in the era of big data.

This volume covers techniques in computational biology and their applications in oncology. It details advanced statistical methods, heuristic algorithms, cluster analysis, data modeling, and image and pattern analysis applied to cancer research.

This book introduces and discusses the most important aspects of clinical research methods and biostatistics for oncologists, pursuing a tailor-made and practical approach. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been in vogue in the last few decades, particularly in rapidly advancing fields such as oncology. This approach has been used to support decision-making processes worldwide, sparking new clinical research and guidelines on clinical and surgical oncology. Clinical oncology research has many peculiarities, including specific study endpoints, a special focus on survival analyses, and a unique perspective on EBM. However, during medical studies and in general practice, these topics are barely taught. Moreover, even when EBM and clinical cancer research are discussed, they are presented in a theoretical fashion, mostly focused on formulas and numbers, rather than on clinical application for a proper literature appraisal. Addressing that gap, this book discusses more practical aspects of clinical research and biostatistics in oncology, instead of relying only on mathematical formulas and theoretical considerations. Methods and Biostatistics in Oncology will help readers develop the skills they need to understand the use of research on everyday oncology clinical practice for study design and interpretation, as well to demystify the use of EBM in oncology.

The book will provide an exhaustive and clear explanation of how Statistics, Mathematics and Informatics have been used in cancer research, and seeks to help cancer researchers in achieving their objectives. To do so, state-of-the-art Biostatistics, Biomathematics and Bioinformatics methods will be described and discussed in detail through illustrative and capital examples taken from cancer research work already published. The book will provide a guide for cancer researchers in using Statistics, Mathematics and Informatics, clarifying the contribution of these logical sciences to the study of cancer, thoroughly explaining their procedures and methods, and providing criteria to their appropriate use.

Principles and Applications of Biostatistics covers the primary concepts and methods that are required for a fundamental understanding of the use and interpretation of statistics for the biological and health sciences–from data presentation to multiple regression and analysis of variance. With a focus clarity, brevity, and accuracy, this text provides understandable and focused explanation of statistical principles and applications along with practical examples (provided in R and Microsoft Excel) and problems drawn from biological health and medical settings. Key Features: • Practical questions follow each problem to encourage students to consider why the problem likely exists, help formulate hypotheses, and then statistically assess those hypotheses. • Abundant assignment problems at the end of sections and each chapter cover a variety of application areas of biostatistics. • Rationale boxes offer explanations of why certain methods are used for specific cases.