From isolated hypotheses to connected practical studies: Statisticians' role in a seamless targeted therapy development

摘要

Target-based therapeutic development and personalized cancer medicine is, and will remain, a hot topic in oncology. This reflects advances in understanding the triangular relationship among patient well being, disease prognosis and treatment impact. Although rapid advances in technology have facilitated a wide range of molecular biomarker discoveries, targeted drug development still suffers from a high failure rate. There is a clear gap between the blooming discoveries in laboratory science and the tremendous unmet need in clinical practice for patient care [2]. Scientists from many disciplines contribute their expertise and creativity into drug development; however, often in an isolated fashion. The need for greater collaboration has been widely recognized. An urgent call for an innovative integration is needed, an integration that goes beyond merely collaboration among multidisciplinary scientists, toward a platform that allows interactive and iterative collaboration from early laboratory discovery to confirmation of clinical benefit in randomized controlled studies, through a sophisticated infrastructure to achieve the prospectively defined strategic goal(s).