Cancer Biostatistics Center
About Us
Services
The Biostatistics Shared Resource team work with Cancer Center investigators to:
- define objectives and endpoints
- analyze pilot dataselect an appropriate designdevise a blinding and randomization schemeplan interim analysesdetermine the early stopping rulescompute an adequate sample size with concern for the clinical as well as statistical significanceestimate the time required to accrue the total patient populationspecify the statistical methodsprepare statistical sections of the grant and protocol applications
- relational database design
Objectives
The members of the Biostatistics Shared Resource endeavor to:
- Provide consultative services for Cancer Center investigators in the statistical design, conduct, and analysis of studies
- Collaborate in funded research efforts initiated by Cancer Center laboratory and clinical investigators, providing statistical expertise in the study design, power and sample size analysis, data analysis, interpretation of results, and the writing of manuscripts
- Provide relational database design, data tracking, forms, queries, and reports for the investigator-initiated clinical trials database or laboratory study database
- Develop and evaluate statistical methods for experimental design and data analysis
- Work with the Cancer Center Clinical Trials Shared Resource in the development of a new research project database, to maintain data quality control and to ensure timely data capture
- Train VICC members in the research design and data analysis through seminars, short statistical workshops, or individual sessions on statistical methods
Charges
There is no charge-back for using the Biostatistics Shared Resource since biostatistical input is crucial to most clinical and laboratory studies. However, the Cancer Center requires that at least one of the resource staff be listed as co-investigator on the research grant applications that need support from the Biostatistics Shared Resource.
Equipment and Tools
Seven Intel Processor Workstations
- ranging from PIII to Dual Pentium 4 Xeon Processor Configurations
- 256 MB to 1 gigabyte of RAM per workstation Windows 2000, XP, NT 4.0, and Linux OSover 300 gigabytes of file space
- complete backup of critical data performed nightly
Windows 2000 Servers
- two dedicated servers
- 12 gigabytes of storage space dedicated directly for research
- research backed up and verified daily
Software Tools
- Sas 8.2, S-Plus 6.0, Stata 7.0, Nquery, and other statistical applications
- MS Visual Studio 6.0, Digital Fortran, Visual Basic
- MS Access XP for Relational Database Projects
Input / Output Devices
- Xerox Network Color Laser Printer for high-quality color output
- HP Network Laser Printer for high output print jobs
- 3 HP Laser Printers
- HP Scanjet for photograph high-resolution scans with automatic document feeder and OCR capabilities
- Brother MFC document scanner/ fax/ laser copy
Media and Connectivity
- Zip (100/250MB) formats
- CD, CD-R, CD-RW (read and write)
- DVD, DVD-R (read only)
- Compact Flash Memory
- 1.44 Floppy
- DLT 20/40 Tapes
- USB, SCSI, Firewire
- Member of Vanderbilt Network: Accessible to all Resources
