title: Evaluating cluster alarms: a space-time scan statistic and brain cancer in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article presents a space-time scan statistic, useful for evaluating space-time cluster alarms, and illustrates the method on a recent brain cancer cluster alarms in Los Alamos, NM.
  
  
  METHODS
  The space-time scan statistic accounts for the preselection bias and multiple testing inherent in a cluster alarm. Confounders and time trends can be adjusted for.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The observed excess of brain cancer in Los Alamos was not statistically significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The space-time scan statistic is useful as a screening tool for evaluating which cluster alarms merit further investigation and which clusters are probably chance occurrences.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md 20892-7368, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kulldorff
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Athas
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Feurer
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Key
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009516:New Mexico / Q000453:epidemiology; D018426:SEER Program; D013029:Space-Time Clustering