Dear Reader:
We analyzed the data provided by Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA) and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program database from 2000 through 2015 for the purpose of compiling survival rates for eleven (11) cancers of interest. Our efforts employed the statistical guidelines that govern these types of analyses by leading practitioners. Although the lack of direct comparability of the two data sets imposes certain limitations on the interpretation of the results as stated elsewhere on this site, we believe the analyses provide an accurate representation of survival rates for CTCA® patients.
Sincerely,
Bert Spilker, PhD, MD Chengjie Xiong, PhD
Bert Spilker, PhD, MD, is the founder of Bert Spilker & Associates, LLC (BS&A), a consulting company working with more than 100 health care clients and contracting with over 150 experts on a variety of research areas of specialization.
Prior to forming BS&A, Dr. Spilker served as the Senior Vice President of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) based in Washington, D.C. where he represented the U.S. pharmaceutical industry both nationally and internationally. Dr. Spilker also served as President and Co-Founder of Orphan Medical, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that developed and marketed medical products for patients with orphan/rare diseases.
He currently serves as Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Minnesota and Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Spilker completed his medical training in pharmacology and internal medicine at Cornell Medical College, State University of New York (Downstate Medical Center), University of California at San Francisco, University of Miami Medical School (PhD to MD Program) and Brown University Medical School.
Chengjie Xiong, PhD, MS, studies novel statistical design of experiments and clinical trials, linear and nonlinear mixed models, longitudinal data analysis, survival analysis and reliability, diagnostic accuracy, advanced meta-analysis, categorical data analysis, order restricted statistical inferences, and their applications in medicine, public health, biology, education and engineering.
Dr. Xiong remains active in interdisciplinary research and has provided statistical consulting for academia, private industries and government agencies across the country, including directing the database management and statistical analyses for several National Institute of Health (NIH) funded projects.
He received a BS in Mathematics from Xiangtan University (China), an MS in Applied Mathematics from Peking University (China), and a PhD in Statistics from Kansas State University.