Faculty

Head of Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Saskia Litière obtained her degree of Applied Mathematics at the University of Ghent in 2001. In that same year she started her career as a statistician in the Center for Statistics (Censtat) at the Hasselt University. Over a period of nine years she was involved in the reorganization of the MSc in Applied Statistics program, she obtained the degree of MSc in Biostatistics, she worked as statistical consultant, she was involved in the teaching of several Bachelor and Master level courses in statistics and she successfully defended her PhD thesis on the topic of misspecification in generalized linear mixed models. In September 2010 she joined the EORTC statistics department, since 2020 as Head of the Statistics Department. She has worked with the EORTC Breast Cancer Group and is currently the statistician of the EORTC Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group. She is currently one of the course directors of the EORTC-ESMO-AACR Workshop on Methods in Clinical Cancer Research and she is the statistician of several non-EORTC IDMCs (Independent Data Monitoring Committee). She has been working with Jan Bogaerts on RECIST for more than 10 years and is involved in the ongoing updates of RECIST.

Lead Statistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Murielle Mauer has a PhD in Pure Mathematics. She was Assistant at the Faculty of Science at the University of Liège from 1995 to 2001 and researcher in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Processing at the University Hospital of Liège from 2001 to 2003. She got a Master degree in Biostatistics at Limburgs Universitair Centrum in 2003. She got practical experience of the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials in Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company from 2003 to 2006. At EORTC, she worked as a research fellow in the Quality of Life Unit. Since 2007, she is the Biostatistician in charge of providing statistical support to the EORTC Gastro-intestinal Tract Cancer Group and to the EORTC Elderly Task Force.

Professor of Biostatistics, Université de Versailles – St Quentin (UVSQ) & Institut Curie
St-Cloud, France

Xavier Paoletti is a professor of biostatistics at the University of Versailles St Quentin and at the Institut Curie, a cancer center, in Paris, France; he is a member of the INSERM U900 research unit dedicated to the development of statistical methods for clinical trials integrating biomarkers.

After a phd on early phase clinical trials, Xavier had several positions at the EORTC, at Bichat university hospital then at the French NCI and finally in two leading cancer centers, Institut Curie and Gustave Roussy.

His main interests are in the methods for early phase trials with a particular focus on pediatric oncology trials, the design of trials evaluating personalized medicine and the validation of surrogate endpoints. He co-coordinates the GASTRIC collaboration for performing meta-analyses in gastric cancers and he coordinates the gynecology cancer inter group (GCIG) meta-analysis with Dr Ros Glasspool for performing meta-analyses in ovarian cancer. He is a member of the Curie institutional Ethics Committee.

Director, Methodology Direction, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Jan Bogaerts graduated from the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) in 1986 with a degree in mathematics and in 1988 with a degree in management. In 1993 he obtained his PhD in mathematics. He joined BMS in 1993 as statistician and was involved in several FDA and EMA submissions.
In 2004 he joined the EORTC as statistician. In 2017, he was promoted Scientific Director. He now oversees the activities of the Medical, the Statistics and the Quality of Life departments.
He has contributed to the development of RECIST. He also serves as permanent statistician of the EMA Scientific Advisory Group – Oncology. His statistical interests include methodological issues in Progression Free Survival, alternative ways to use changes in tumor measurements and newer technologies that measure disease status as predictive markers. He is also highly interested in closing the gap between clinical trials and day-to-day practice and in increasing scientific learning from merging multiple data sources.

Associate Professor of Statistics in Late Phase Cancer Clinical Trials
CTRU, Leeds University, Leeds, United Kingdom

David is Associate Professor of Statistics in Late Phase Cancer Clinical Trials and the Director of Late Phase Trials in the Cancer Division at CTRU. David joined CTRU as a Principal Statistician working across the Cancer Division and Comprehensive Health Research Division in July 2013.

David was previously Senior Research Fellow in Biostatistics at the Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology where he worked in high-dimensional data analysis related to a number of translational projects in genetics, proteomics and biomarker discovery and validation. David was the recipient of an MRC Career Development Award in Biostatistics to undertake research in ‘Novel statistical methods for the design and analysis of proteomic experiments for biomarker discovery’.

Lead Statistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Corneel Coens is currently working as a statistician at the EORTC Headquarters (Brussels, Belgium). As part of his tasks for the EORTC Quality of Life Department, he is involved in various aspects of Quality of Life in many oncological clinical trials ranging from instrument validation to design, analysis and reporting of QoL endpoints. He is also the designated study statistician for the EORTC Gyneacological Cancer Group since 2001. He is a regular contributor for various EORTC educational courses and is former co-director for the EORTC/ESMO/AACR Workshop “Methods in Clinical Cancer Research”.

Professor of Applied Mathematics, Mathematical Institute Leiden
Leiden, The Netherlands

Marta Fiocco holds a PhD in Mathematical Statistics and is currently the head of the DASPO group on Data Analysis and Survival for Personalised Oncology at the Mathematical institute. DASPO also involves the Leiden University Medical Center, where Marta holds a part-time appointment, and the Princes Máxima Centre for Child Oncology in Utrecht.
Its research focuses on prognostic models for oncology data. The group develops new methodologies for inference on the effectiveness of therapeutic regimens in fighting cancer, and applies and adapts existing statistical techniques to an oncology setting.
Their models form an important tool in personalised medicine, where tailored treatment of cancer patients avoids undertreatment of high-risk patients and overtreatment in low-risk patients.

Lead Biostatistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Catherine Fortpied obtained a Master Degree in Statistics in 1997. After 10 years of experience in pharmaceutical industry as clinical trial statistician in allergy-immunology and central nervous system therapeutic areas, she joined the EORTC ((European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer) in 2008 as senior statistician in charge of the design and analysis of clinical studies in Hodgkin Lymphoma and Head and Neck Cancer. Since 2018 she is lead statistician and has also managerial responsibilities within the Statistics department of the EORTC.

Statistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Michal Kicinski earned his Master of Science in Statistics, Specialization biostatistics, with great distinction from KU Leuven in 2011, Belgium, and his PhD in Science from Hasselt University, Belgium in 2015. As a researcher at Hasselt University, Michal conducted studies in the field of epidemiology, worked as a statistical consultant, performed research on methods to detect publication in meta-analysis, and investigated the size of publication bias in published meta-analyses. Michal joined the EORTC after obtaining his PhD. As a fellow, he worked on studies assessing the long-term outcomes among survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma and childhood ALL, studies comparing outcomes of patients treated in and outside clinical trials, a phase III melanoma trial comparing adjuvant pembrolizumab with placebo, and analyses of prognostic and predictive factors in childhood ALL and adult AML. Currently, Michal works as a biostatistician for the EORTC Leukemia, Children Leukemia, and Melanoma groups. In addition, he is involved in a study on methods to deal with crossover in analysis of overall survival and a study of methods to compare treatments when the hazards are non-proportional.

Research Fellow,Academic Urology Unit, University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen, United Kingdom

My research involves clinical trials, as well systematically reviewing, critically appraising and synthesising intervention effectiveness data, and incorporating these forms of evidence in clinical practice guideline (CPG) recommendations using transparent evidence-to-decision methods. I also apply mixed methods in developing core outcome sets, and in consensus projects to assist CPG panels to give interim guidance in the face of no evidence, low quality evidence or conflicting evidence. Another arm of my research is directed toward addressing evidence gaps whereby interventions underpinned by high quality evidence and strong recommendations in CPGs are not routinely followed – this again requires a mixed methods approach to investigate practice patterns, barriers and facilitators to practice, and developing knowledge transfer interventions. I am a member of the European Association of Urology’s (EAU) methodology committee which oversees and delivers the EAU’s systematic review and CPG development training programmes, and a founding member of the EAU’s IMAGINE group, which aims to tackle evidence-to-practice gaps in urology.

Director Oncostat Team CESP, INSERM U1018, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Institut Gustave Roussy
Villejuif, France

Stefan Michiels is Head of the Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Gustave Roussy, and Head of Oncostat, CESP, INSERM U1018, University Paris-Saclay in Villejuif, France. His areas of expertise are clinical trials, meta-analyses, biomarkers and clinical prediction models. Stefan is the currently the chair of the biostatisticians at Unicancer, a French collaborative cancer clinical trials group.
Stefan holds a PhD in Biostatistics from the School of Public Health at the University Paris-Sud and Master Degrees in Statistics and in Applied Mathematics from the University of Leuven. His previous positions include the Université Libre de Bruxelles- Institut Jules Bordet (Belgium), the National Cancer Institute (France) and the University of Leuven (Belgium). Stefan has edited with Susan Halabi the book “Textbook of Clinical Trials in Oncology – A Statistical Perspective“ and has authored above 200 peer-reviewed publications (http://www.publicationslist.org/stefan.michiels). He is currently member of the editorial board of Annals of Oncology, NPJ Breast Cancer and Cancer Prevention Research and performs regular statistical reviews for the Lancet family of journals.

Senior Statistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Jammbe obtained a PhD in Biostatistics at the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam in 2016. He joined the EORTC headquarter in October 2015 as a quality of life research fellow. Jammbe is involved in several research projects and leads the EORTC Minimally important difference (MID) project that aims to provide interpretational guidelines for the EORTC QLQ-C30 in cancer clinical trials. He is also the designated statistician for the EORTC cutaneous lymphoma tumor group, where he provides statistical support in the design of cancer clinical trials.

Senior Statistician, Statistics Department, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Coralie Poncet obtained Master’s degree in Engineering in agronomics and life sciences from AgroParisTech in France in 2007. She also earned a degree in quantitative epidemiology and statistical methodology. She worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry from 2008 to 2016. She was involved in pharmaco-epidemiological studies and supported HTA submissions, mostly in rheumatology and immuno-oncology therapeutic areas. She joined the EORTC in 2017, as a senior statistician, providing support for the design and analysis of clinical trials of the breast Cancer Group.

Statistician, Statistics Departement, EORTC Headquarters
Brussels, Belgium

Yassin obtained a PhD in Physics in Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium in 2016. Prior to joining EORTC in 2020 he worked as a consultant in financial risk management software, and then as a statistical programmer for clinical trials in a CRO. He is also the designated statistician for the EORTC Lung Cancer Group where he provides support in the design and analysis of cancer clinical trials.

Professor of Clinical Trials and Methodology, MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL
London, United Kingdom

Matt is responsible for co-leading the Trial Conduct Methodology work is to develop evidence-based ways to improve how clinical trials are run. Areas of particular interest include: the use of routinely-collected electronic health records (EHR) to support and run trials, with Health Data Research UK; running academic-led trials with a view to regulatory use and submission; proportionate and efficient monitoring of clinical trial; implementation of novel designs into practice, particularly platform / master protocols; better clinical trial data sharing; and communication of trial findings.
Matt is seconded part-time to lead the Data-Enabled Trials theme for the BHF Data Science Centre, led by Health Data Research UK. Matt teaches on the UCL Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology’s MSc in Clinical Trials and supervises a number of PhD and MSc students. Matt leads UCL’s short course on Data Monitoring Committees and has attended >200 IDMC and TSC meetings for national and international trials. Matt is on the executive committee for the NIHR-MRC Trials Methodology Research Partnership (TMRP). He chairs the INSERM MESSIDORE funding panel in France and sits on the MRC’s Better Methods Better Research in the UK. More info via https://linktr.ee/mattsydes

Professor of Clinical Trials Biostatistics, The Institute of Cancer Research
London, United Kingdom

Christina Yap is Professor of Clinical Trials Biostatistics and Team Leader of ICR-CTSU Early Phase & Adaptive Trials at the Institute of Cancer Research. Christina has over 20 years of experience in statistical design and analysis of clinical trials. Her main expertise comprises of development and practical implementation of efficient design and analysis in clinical trials. This includes adaptive designs in early phase dose-finding trials as well as multi-arm multi-stage randomised Phase II/III designs and platform designs; including Bayesian approaches to such settings. She is a Joint-lead of the Precision Medicine Working Group within the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership (TMRP) and chair its rare disease subgroup; co-lead of the NIHR Statistics Group – Early Phase Trials, core committee member of TMRP Statistical Analysis Working Group and member of the TMRP Adaptive Designs Working Group. She sits on funding panels, including Cancer Research UK Clinical Research Committee and the French National Cancer Institute evaluation committee for early phase clinical trials on innovative drugs. She is an expert advisor on the MHRA Clinical Trials, Biologicals and Vaccines Expert Advisory Group. She is the Principal Investigator for the international consensus-based SPIRIT and CONSORT extensions for dose-finding trials.