Thread by @BettinaRyll

This 👇. Might look like *lost in technical detail* but this is precisely the level of detail that matters when you are in cancer, whatever the reason.

https://twitter.com/manjuggm/status/1443977750419755011

From a patient perspective and with the risk of upsetting the maximum number of non-patient people- but don't worry, we do this all for PATIENT BENEFIT DONT WE ♥️♥️♥️♥️ 😇😇😇😇😈😈😈😈

it's save to assume that our oncologists don't understand translational research nor statisticians. Our Translational researchers don't understand statistics nor the clinic. And surprise, statisticians don't understand neither the translation nor the clinic reality.

And in case there is now OOUHH AHHH BUTTT- just do some smart search on twitter and you'll find plenty of hilarious 🧵 one bitching about the other. And don't forget about the PRIVATE ONES you don't see.

it's obviously SAFE not save 🙄

In a nutshell, it's about the quality of the question you ask, the way you measure your outcomes and the analysis of your results. Go wrong in any of them and the overall result is for the bin.

So you want to have a heart-to-heart with your clinicians about what *meaningful* looks to them (that's NOT the trial design, we've had enough *wouldn't it be good to know*s by now)

Get some experts on the translation- and the folks who actually know how to develop biomarkers, there should be a punishment on *exploratory biomarkers on 33 1/2 patients no follow-up ever coming* IMO

And some statisticians who can tell you whether you can trust the data or not. For radiological endpoints, talking to radiologists is a TRUE eye-opener.

So I guess the real art is to find those people who care more about *getting* it right than *being* right. And while it's fun to bitch about how stupid everyone else is, the *real* gems are the people who know what they do know and what they don't.

And if you happen to found a set of a truly observing clinician, a translationist who can turn observation into a valid diagnostic and a statistician to tell you what you can trust and what you can't- that's invaluable