SEMINAR: Mathematics & Statistics Colloquium

Everyone is warmly invited to our Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium.

Talk title: Design of dose-escalation trials: Research spurred by a trial that went wrong

Talk abstract: In March 2006 the topic of designed experiments briefly hit the British newspaper headlines when a clinical trial near London went badly wrong. When a working party of the Royal Statistical Society looked into this, my experience from designing experiments in other areas, such as agricultural field trials and microarray experiments, proved useful in improving the design of dose-escalation trials to obtain better information without compromising safety or using more volunteers. I shall say something about the recommendations of the RSS working party, something about the ethical constraints on Phase I clinical trials, and something about the new designs.