Reply to "Prognostic Value of Fluorodeoxyglucose-Positron Emission Tomography".

Current research interests have application to the design and analysis of cancer clinical trials. Specifically, interests include the use of time-dependent covariables within survival models, the design of phase II cancer clinical trials which minimize some of the logistical problems associated with their conduct, and the analysis of longitudinal studies with informative censoring (in particular, quality of life studies of patients with advanced cancer).

There are numerous ongoing clinical studies primarily focused on the early detection of cancer.

The basic science investigations in our laboratory concentration on three fundamental translational areas,

1) Development of molecular imaging probes - We have used several different approaches to develop novel imaging probes that characterize and phenotype tumors.

2) Discovery of novel lung cancer biomarkers - We explored the use of proteomics, autoantibodies, and genomics to discover blood and tissue biomarkers for early cancer detection and phenotyping of cancer.

3) Host response to cancer - We study the native immune response to tumors as this may provide cues to relevant diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Most recently we have focused on intratumoral lymphocytes and their specific tumor antigens.