Pradeep Virdee
BSc, MSc
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow; Medical Statistician
About Me
I am currently undergoing a DPhil at the Centre for Statistics in Medicine (CSM). My research involves exploring how the full blood count, a standard blood test, can be used for early detection of bowel cancer. Bowel cancer is one of the more common types of cancer in the UK and despite current methods to find the cancer as early as possible, the majority of patients are diagnosed with late stage bowel cancer. This is a problem because the stage at diagnosis heavily influences survival; over 94% alive after five years if the cancer is diagnosed at Stage I but 7% alive if at Stage IV. To help find the cancer early, I aim to develop a complex statistical prediction model that will use the full blood count to predict whether someone will have bowel cancer in the future. This research is funded by the NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship programme.
Before commencing my DPhil in January 2019, I worked primarily in oncology clinical trials in the CSM since joining in August 2014. From advising on the design at setup to the dissemination of results to the clinical community at the end, my responsibilities included providing statistical expertise in the execution of oncology clinical trials of all sizes, covering a range of cancer types and study designs. My projects include FOXFIRE (a randomised, multi-centre, phase 3 trial using selective internal radiation therapy to improve outcomes in metastatic colorectal cancer) and SCALOP-2 (a multi-stage, randomised, multi-centre, phase 2 trial intensifying standard treatments for non-metastatic pancreatic cancer to improve outcomes).
One of my interests as a statistician is statistical programming, where I strive to improve efficiency, such as making handling data easier and less time-consuming. I am passionate about working collaboratively, so as to improve productivity in clinical research. I am keen to share my skills of good practice.
In 2016, I was awarded with one of the University of Oxford's Awards for Excellence for my "consistent exceptional performance".
Before joining CSM, I graduated from Coventry University in 2012 with a BSc in Mathematics. The following year, I graduated from the University of Leicester with an MSc in Medical Statistics.
Recent publications
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DEBIOC: A phase I dose escalating safety study and randomised dose expansion of AZD8931 in combination with oxaliplatin and capecitabine chemotherapy in patients with oesophago-gastric adenocarcinoma
Journal article
Thomas A. et al, (2019), European journal of cancer
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Quality of life in the FOXFIRE, SIRFLOX, and FOXFIRE-Global randomised trials of selective internal radiotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer
Journal article
WOLSTENHOLME J. et al, (2019), International journal of cancer
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Components of the full blood count as risk factors for colorectal cancer detection: a systematic review protocol
Journal article
VIRDEE P. et al, (2019), Bmj open
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Response of FDG Avid Pelvic Bone Marrow to Concurrent Chemoradiation for Anal Cancer
Journal article
Robinson M. et al, (2019), Radiotherapy and oncology
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A prospective study of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging for predicting outcome following chemoradiotherapy, in squamous cell carcinomas of the anus
Conference paper
Muirhead R. et al, (2019)