Stat4Onc Annual Symposium

Project Summary/Abstract Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death in US. Statistical designs and data analytics approaches are instrumental in recent development of more effective treatments for cancer. While successes like the I-SPY2 trial highlight the advancement, most oncology trials do not fully utilize powerful statistical innovations and there remains a lack of effective communications between oncologists and statisticians. To address these issues, we propose the Stat4Onc symposium which provides a unique platform for oncologists and statisticians to discuss and exchange ideas for pressing issues in cancer clinical trials, disease diagnosis, patient care, and decision making for drug development. This symposium will further drive innovations in statistical methodology and data analytics dedicated for oncology research and translate these innovations to research practice. It also provides a venue for trainees in oncology and statistics to learn inter-disciplinary collaborations. The symposium will be rotated among the four participating universities in a five- year funding period. The symposium is a three-day event, with first day of short courses relevant to the theme of the year, and then a two-day single-track scientific program. The symposium is inclusive, with respect to scientific expertise in oncology, statistics, regulatory and data sciences, to their professional associations from academia (faculty, staff, and students), biopharma and biotech industry, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, and to gender and ethnicity, in particular for the inclusion of underrepresented minority groups. The symposium size will be around 200 participants, allowing adequate and focused discussions. The symposium will be single tracked to allow participants to be in all the sessions. Keynote talks and all the sessions will have speakers from academic, government, and industry and with expertise in oncology and statistics. Trainees in both oncology and statistics disciplines will be supported for attending the symposium and offers opportunities to present in poster and mixer sessions. Symposium talks will be published in JCO Precision Oncology and New England Journal of Statistics in Data Science.