ECNIS WP4 and W8 Workshop
HOW TO IMPROVE THE REPORTING OF MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY
STUDIES: EXTENSION OF STROBE TO BIOMARKERS
Turin, Italy, June 3rd, 2009
Venue : Villa Gualino - Piemonte Room
In recent years the methods of epidemiology have
considerably expanded encompassing sophisticated exposure
assessment techniques based on biomarkers, and the
investigation of markers of early response and
susceptibility to disease. The expectation is that the
inclusion of biomarkers can overcome some of the
limitations of other epidemiological approaches and lead
to the identification of important risk factors for
disease more quickly.
The inclusion of biomarkers poses a number of new
problems, such as the reliability of measurements, special
sources of bias, and special study design issues. Although
the inclusion of biomarkers has greatly increased the
potentialities of epidemiology, there is much room for
inappropriate use, and also reporting is often far from
being complete and accurate. While in the case of
Genome-Wide Association Studies (see also STREGA
guidelines), replication of findings is in-built in the
papers that are published, this is not common in molecular
epidemiology studies.
For these reasons we propose guidelines for strengthening
the reporting of molecular epidemiology studies, based on
the previous experiences of STROBE and STREGA.
The ‘Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies
in Epidemiology’ (STROBE) initiative was established in
2004 aiming at providing guidance on how to report
observational research. The STROBE statement was
simultaneously published alongside to the 22-items
checklist in 2007 in different medical journals. The
general aim of STROBE is improving the quality of
reporting observational studies through providing general
reporting recommendations for descriptive observational
studies and studies that investigate associations between
exposures and health outcomes.
The present workshop will present the first draft of
STROBE-Molecular Epidemiology, that will be discussed by
epidemiologists who have made pivotal contributions to
Molecular Epidemiology or to STROBE.
Meeting Programme
9.30 - 10,30 Paolo Vineis, Valentina Gallo - The STROBE-ME
project. How to improve reporting of molecular
epidemiology studies.
10.30-10.45 coffee break
Discussants:
10:45- 11.15 Roger Godschalk: Biomarker development and
validation
11.15-11.45 Bernadette Schoket: How processing and storage
of samples is described in molecular epidemiology papers:
lessons for better reporting
11.45- 12.15 David Phillips: Improving the quality of
reporting: assays for genotoxicity
12.15-12.45 General discussion and perspectives.
