# Building a Statistics Education Program for Preclinical Cancer Researchers

> **NIH NIH R25** · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · 2020 · $30,553

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
In the past decade, the cancer research community has made considerable progress in characterizing the
genomic features of human tumors. Knowledge of molecular drivers of cancer has therefore increased greatly.
Although the oncology community hoped that this would lead to more effective therapies, our ability to translate
laboratory cancer research into clinical success has been remarkably low – only 5% of the agents
demonstrated to have anticancer activity in laboratory studies went on to achieve success in phase III clinical
trials. Many factors are responsible for this disturbingly high percentage of failures, including misuse or
misunderstanding of statistical design and analysis concepts, interpretation and reporting methods. Although
correctable, these issues are widely prevalent in the cancer biomedical research enterprise. Another concern is
that statistics training is not a required component of graduate programs in biomedical sciences. Recognizing
the seriousness of these issues, the National Institutes of Health has called for the full engagement of the
entire biomedical research enterprise to implement the resources needed to improve and sustain the statistical
rigor and successful translation of preclinical cancer research. To this end, we propose to develop a statistics
curriculum for early-career preclinical cancer researchers (i.e., postdoctoral researchers) conducting laboratory
research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as well as the broader research community. Our
proposed curriculum will be delivered over a 10-week period with one 90-minute class per week in a flipped
classroom format, where lecture notes will be disseminated one week prior to each classroom contact and
classroom time will be dedicated to hands-on activities with experimental designs, data analysis and
participatory dialogues. We will develop a plan for evaluating our proposed curriculum and make all the
resources available to the broader statistics and cancer research communities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10017922
- **Project number:** 5R25CA244071-02
- **Recipient organization:** SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH
- **Principal Investigator:** Sujata Patil
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $30,553
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-13 → 2020-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10017922

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10017922, Building a Statistics Education Program for Preclinical Cancer Researchers (5R25CA244071-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10017922. Licensed CC0.

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