Congratulations to BSU PhD student, Michael Grayling, who has been selected as a finalist for the Society for Clinical Trails (SCT) Thomas C. Chalmers Award.

Third year student, Michael, in the DART research theme, submitted an abstract to the SCT Student Scholarship Committee and was selected as a finalist. He has been invited to present his paper “Do single-arm trials have a role in drug development plans incorporating randomised trials?” at the 37th Annual Meeting which will be taking place from the 15th – 18th May 2016, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The student judged to have the best paper will receive the Thomas C. Chalmers Student Scholarship prize and a $500 cash award.

His paper explores the appropriate usage of single-arm studies in phase II when a randomised two-arm trial will follow. Using a recently published non-small-cell lung cancer trial as an example, it discusses the efficiency of several possible drug development plans in order to detail how a clinician may determine the optimal design to use according to their prior beliefs.

This is a fantastic achievement for Michael. Michael says: “I am delighted to have been selected as a finalist and very grateful to the committee for having chosen me. With more and more novel treatments becoming available efficient phase II design is becoming increasingly important and I am excited to share our work on this topic in Montreal.”