title: How to analyze tumor stage data in clinical research.
abstract: Tumor staging serves as an important prognostic factor in cancer patient care. It also plays critical roles in cancer-related clinical research. Aimed to shed lights on how to analyze tumor staging related data and deliver proper interpretation, various statistical methods, from categorical data analysis to modeling techniques, were introduced through the examples. General guidelines were discussed for how to choose proper statistical test with key considerations of research aims, study design, measurement scale of data, proper data summary, type of associations, and underlying assumptions of statistical methods.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Command Region, Jinan 250031, China ; 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China ; 3 Department of Health Science Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Zhi-De
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Command Region, Jinan 250031, China ; 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China ; 3 Department of Health Science Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Zhi-Rui
authors.initials: ZR
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, General Hospital of Ji'nan Military Command Region, Jinan 250031, China ; 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China ; 3 Department of Health Science Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qian
keywords: Tumor stage; cancer research; clinical interpretation; statistical methods