Examples of Current Collaborative Projects

The Division of Biostatistics provides statistical support to all the in-house protocols of the Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC) and the Jefferson Oncology Group. This includes advice on study design, help with writing of the protocol, implementation of randomization, and data analysis. Dr Hyslop serves as the Director of the Biostatistics Core for the KCC; Drs. Chervoneva, Dasgupta, Daskalakis, and Leiby are all involved in various activities in oncology research.

With funding from NCI and other sources, Dr. Ron Myers and his group (Dept. of Medical Oncology) have been conducting research on decision making. They have developed interventions to promote informed decision making for colorectal and prostate cancer screening, and have conducted a number of developmental studies, as well as randomized trials, with the close collaboration of Drs. Hyslop and Daskalakis.

Drs. Barry Rovner and Robin Casten in the department of Psychiatry have been pursuing research on the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral treatment among adults with age-related macular degeneration.  Previous research, funded by NIMH, showed that Problem-Solving Treatment, a standardized home-based treatment that teaches problem-solving skills, prevents depression in patients with AMD.  Current research, funded by the National Eye Institute, enrolls subjects into a randomized clinical trial to test the ability of PST to improve vision functioning.

With funding support from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Dr. Falkner (Dept. of Medicine), Drs. Plumb and Rappaport (Dept. of Family and Community Medicine), and Dr. Daskalakis have established a Center of Excellence for Obesity Research at Jefferson. The Center promotes research in biological pathways involved in obesity-related morbidity, supports efforts for obesity control in the community (particularly among underserved minority populations), and mentors students and junior researchers interested in obesity research.

Dr. Scott Waldman (Dept. of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics) has two NCI-funded multi-center studies to determine the potential utility of a biomarker, guanylyl cyclase C (GCC), for the clinical staging of patients with colorectal cancer. Among the study's goals are the definition of the specificity of expression of GCC in human tissues (including primary and metastatic tumors) and the comparison of staging via GCC RT-PCR to staging via conventional histopathology in terms of the patients' clinical outcomes.