EpidStat presented "Survival Synthesis: Methods for Meta-analysis of Survival Rates and Aggregation of Survival Data" at a poster session for the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics on January 10, 2018 in Charlston, SC. The poster details the methods used in Bylsma et al. Arteriovenous Fistulae for Haemodialysis: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis of Efficacy and Safety Outcomes. European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 2017. We discussed the process of digitizing survival curves from the published literature and simulating individual patient data to derive survival statistics that were not published with the article. We conclude that while labor-intensive, the methodology makes the best use of available study data.

EpidStat presented "Prevalence of KRAS and BRAF Mutations in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC) by Tumor Location: A Review and Meta-analysis" on January 20, 2018 at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. Results from 44 studies comprising nearly 16,000 mCRC patients demonstrated that both KRAS and BRAF mutations were significantly more prevalent among right-sided colon tumors than left-sided tumors. These results may aid clinicians and researchers in the search for target novel therapeutics.