Event

There is a pressing need to integrate innovative methodologies to improve clinical trials in the setting of small sample population groups. The objective of this talk is to present research that produces methods of general applicability as developed through multidisciplinary and close collaborations among researchers from universities, research institutes, and industry.  I shall discuss:

1. A general framework for effective collaborations between biostatisticians and clinicians/basic scientists at MD Anderson;

2. A review of some popular Phase I clinical trial designs with particular focus on two innovative designs:  (i)  the Bayesian optimal interval (BOIN) design and (ii) the semi-mechanistic dose-finding design (SMDF) - a new framework for modeling the dose-response relationship, by systematically incorporating the pharmacokinetic data collected in the trial and the hypothesized mechanisms of the drug effects,  with the binary toxicity outcome.  

3. New integrative paradigms of personalized medicine for cancer research:  Motivated by specific problems involving  high throughput omics  data, our team in biostatistics and collaborators  have developed computer-intensive statistical methods  for real-time analysis.  In particular, if time permits I will describe specific examples that involve the development of statistical concepts to integrate at least two omic platforms and highlight the application of our newly developed methods to study their associations with a clinical outcome in analyzing data from  the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Dr. Kim-Anh Do is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she has received multiple awards including most recently her appointment to the Electa C. Taylor Chair in Cancer Research in 2017.  She is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, the International Statistical Institute, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  She has served as a primary statistician or co-investigator for several National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded grants and clinical trials in prostate cancer, epidemiology, leukemia, and upper aerodigestive cancer and the Prostate Cancer, Brain Cancer, and Breast Cancer SPOREs at MD Anderson. She has published more than  200 peer-reviewed articles in statistical methodology, computing, biomedical, and other applied specialist journals. Her most recent research interest is in the development of methods for integrative analysis of genomic and proteomic expression and high-dimensional functional data including microbiome and imaging data. She has developed software to implement her methods and written three books on analytical methods for gene expression and proteomics.  Dr Do has developed and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in Australia and the USA, as well as mentoring and advising numerous postdoctoral fellows, research scientists and PhD students.