Epidemiologic Methodology for Biomarkers (including ROC curve)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Biomarkers are, and will continue to be, an integral part of epidemiological research, making substantial contributions to our understanding of disease pathways and processes. New and emerging biomarkers are essential to this continued understanding. As such, novel study designs that reduce cost and leverage statistical efficiency are also a major focus of Division researchers (Lash and Schisterman, Epidemiology 2018; Schildcrout et al. Epidemiology 2018; Schildcrout et al. Epidemiology 2018). These methods focus on outcome dependent sampling were cost is reduced by measuring biomarkers in a principally designed subset of the samples in the full cohort. Efficiency is maximized by designing a subset guided by the outcome of interest which is often known prior to expensive biomarker exposure measurement. Division researchers continue to adapt these efficient designs and develop methods making outcome dependent sampling equally useful in the analysis of a broad spectrum of cross sectional as well as longitudinal epidemiologic data. These issues have served as the motivation for numerous papers, as well as a collaborative effort funded by the Long-Range Research Initiative of the American Chemistry Council, with the goal of providing the methodological tools necessary to assess and address issues related to study design, biomarker measurement, and biomarker analytic assessment.