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Cause For Concern in Microarray-Based Studies
By Trevor | January 22, 2007
New research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute shows that many microarray-based cancer studies have critical flaws in their analyses or conclusions.
In the study, Simon and his NCI colleague Dr. Alain Dupuy looked at 90 studies published through the end of 2004 that compared microarray profiling with medical results. The most frequently studied cancers were blood malignancies (24 studies), lung tumors (12 studies), and breast cancer (12 studies).Simon and Dupuy then specifically looked at the statistical methods and reporting in 42 studies published in 2004. Half of these efforts had at least one basic error. In the 23 studies with an outcome-related gene finding, nine involved inadequate, confusing, or unstated methods to account for false-positive results, Simon and Dupuy found.
In 13 studies, there were unsupported claims of meaningful classifications of results, where the authors did not do adequate analyses to reach their conclusions. In addition, in the 28 studies that predicted outcomes, 12 used biased estimates of the accuracy of their predictions, according to Simon and Dupuy.
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Topics: cancer, news links, research articles |
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