Overview
The Biostatistics Facility provides clinical and basic-science investigators in the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) with statistical and computer-related expertise in design, execution, analysis, and reporting of cancer-related research studies. These cover basic-science studies; phase I and phase II oncology clinical trials; epidemiologic studies, including those related to cancer prevention and awareness; and investigations of behavioral and health sequelae of cancer treatment. Statisticians serve on UPCI's Clinical Research Oversight Committee, Protocol Review Committee, and Data and Safety Monitoring Committee. They support the training of students, fellows, and cancer researchers in biostatistics, clinical trials, and tumor dynamics. The Facility is also committed to applying statistical and computational methods to improve the manner in which clinical trials and translational research are performed at UPCI, and to developing statistical methodology that aids cancer research. Methodologic research in the Facility has focused on the analysis of biomarkers for prognosis and prediction of response to treatment; quality control in immunologic assay systems; adaptive dose-finding techniques for phase I trials; permutation tests for logistic regression, and for inference from small datasets with many covariates; stochastic modeling of tumor growth and metastasis; weakest-link modeling for studying cause-effect in biological and medical phenomena; meta-analysis; and evaluating quality of life, and behavioral and health outcomes, of patients undergoing cancer treatment.
The Biostatistics Facility is the home of the Educational Resource for Tumor Heterogeneity (ERTH), an NCI-funded project to develop a biomathematical modeling system for oncology: the Oncology Thinking Cap simulator (OncoTCap). This software simulates the evolution of heterogeneous tumors based on mathematical and stochastic modeling of mechanisms arising from molecular biology. The growth, metastasis, and differential response of cancer cells to various treatments can be simulated, thereby providing an assessment of the therapeutic potential of alternative treatment regimens.
The Biostatistics Facility of UPCI is complemented by the Biostatistical Center for the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, a cooperative clinical trials group that conducts randomized phase III clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of breast and colorectal cancer.