Statistics Home

Understanding statistics is important for understanding prognosis. As Stephen Jay Gould describes in, The Median Isn't the Message, a true understanding can allow you to see hope even in statistics which appear hopeless at first glance. Understanding statistics can also help guide you to decisions that maximize your odds and some understanding of statistics is essential to make sense of the technical literature.

• Why Statistics Matter
• The Median Isn't the Message
  ***** The Best Thing Ever Written About Cancer and Statistics! *****.

• The Significance of Statistical Significance
  Learn what "statistically significant" really means (and doesn't mean), and learn the lingo, including "p values", and the "p<.05", that you find in research papers..
• Why Good Results From Small Trials Often Don't Pan Out (And what to do about it)
  A technical note on why in the end, many new treatments prove not to be as good as they looked to be initially.