Introductory Courses

These courses are aimed at trial managers, data managers, trial assistants, research nurses and trial practitioners new to academic cancer clinical trials. These are introductory courses aimed at those wishing to expand their knowledge.

Available courses and Materials

PIS Online Workshop – how to design clear and accessible Patient Information Sheets 25/11/2025

Description:

Description:

Patient Information Sheets (PIS) are a key document for potential participants to make an informed decision about whether to take part in a clinical study. While there is clear guidance from the Health Research Authority (HRA) on content and regulatory requirements, PIS are customised for each clinical trial and the specific patient population. Choosing the right language and format for patient facing materials for research studies and clinical trials still greatly varies and depends on the skills and experience of the team putting them together.

In this workshop attendees will gain useful insights on how to work on the format, language and delivery of the PIS thanks to the participation of patient and public representatives. The session includes an initial overview of the HRA guidance on the PIS design, an introduction to writing in plain English, accessibility and a patient’s perspective, followed by group work where research staff will go into virtual breakout rooms with patient and public representatives to review together a PIS that will be provided to the attendees a week prior to the course (up to 1 hour preparation time). After the course, participants will receive a “PIS Checklist”: a memorandum of the considerations to take into account when designing (or reviewing) a Patient Information Sheet.

This session will take place online via Zoom

Last booking date 06 November 2025

Trainer:

Course tutors: Linda von Neree, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Associate at CRUK & UCL CTC, PPIE Manager at the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Data-Dirven Transfusion Practice and PPI training the UCL Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre

Start date:

25/11/2025

Start time:

10.00

End time:

12.30

Cost:

Fees & Registration

This course is free for staff from Units within Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology (ICTM) which are:

• Cancer Research UK & UCL Cancer Trials Centre

• Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit at UCL

• Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL

• PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit

The free places require a password to book, if you work within the ICTM please email ctc.training@ucl.ac.uk to request this. Emails must be sent from your UCL account and include your name, job title, and the department which you are working in. A cancellation fee of £50 will be charged to your department for late cancellations (less than 14 days) and no-shows for all courses.

Other UCL attendees who are required to pay the course fee can do this by reserving a free place on the online store and then paying by IDT, please email ctc.training@ucl.ac.uk who can assist you with this.

Attendees from outside the ICTM will be required to pay an attendance fee. Fees are based on the attendee's organisation as follows:

£50 for attendees from non-profit organisations

£100 for attendees from for-profit organisations

Please register for this course via the UCL online store . If you have any queries please contact the CTC training administrator via ctc.training@ucl.ac.uk

Please note payment is by payment or credit card only

Quality of life assessment in cancer studies - Tuesday 24 February 2026

Description:

1-day, in-person course

CPD accreditation is being sought (6 CPD hours)

Aims:

Health-related quality of life (QoL) is an essential outcome in contemporary clinical trials. This course will provide an overview of QoL assessment in oncology, including selecting appropriate QoL instruments and implementing, analysing, and interpreting QoL data across trial phases (I–III) and real-world studies.

The course will also cover incorporating QoL into grant applications and protocols, and its use in decision-making to support the implementation of new interventions into clinical practice (e.g. surgery or radiotherapy) or for market authorisation and market access of new cancer drugs. Sessions will be interactive and based on real-life examples.

Target Audience:

This course is for researchers, clinicians, healthcare professionals and statisticians from universities, pharmaceutical companies, NHS, and regulatory and health technology assessment agencies. No prior knowledge of quality of life is required.

The course will be delivered by experts with extensive experience in designing and reporting cancer studies involving QoL, and with a strong track record in teaching:

Dr Andre Lopes – Associate Professor in Medical Statistics with over 12 years’ experience in cancer clinical trials; Teaching & Education Lead for the Cancer Trials Centre; member of the EORTC Quality of Life Group.

Professor Allan Hackshaw – Director of the CRUK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre, with over 32 years’ experience in practice-changing cancer studies; teaches evidence-based medicine and clinical trials at UCL and LSE, including courses on market access to pharmaceutical companies.

Dr Sally Wheelwright – Principal Research Fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, with 30 years’ research experience, including 15 in QoL; senior researcher at the Sussex Health Outcomes Research and Education in Cancer (SHORE-C) group; member of the EORTC QoL workgroup.

Trainer:

Dr Andre Lopes – Associate Professor in Medical Statistics, Professor Allan Hackshaw – Director of the CRUK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre and Dr Sally Wheelwright – Principal Research Fellow at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Start date:

24/02/2026

Start time:

09.00

End time:

16.45

Cost:

The course fee is:

£100 for attendees from non-profit organisations
£200 for attendees from for-profit organisations

Last registration date – 17 February 2026

Please register for this course via the UCL online store. If you have any queries please contact the CTC training administrator via ctc.training@ucl.ac.uk

Please note payment is by payment or credit card only.

Training resources and materials

Statistician courses & resources

Available courses and Materials

There are currently no training courses available.

Statistical Monitoring Programs for R

Below are the programs used in Application of methods for central statistical monitoring in clinical trials. Clinical trials, Volume 10 Issue 5 October 2013 pp. 769 - 792.

The links give the R code and a word document with instructions on how to run the program and interpret the output.

Program name	Instructions	R Code
Dates: Order Checking
Dates: Weekends and National Holidays
Outliers
Digit Preference: Integers
Digit preference: Benford’s law and comparison with all other sites
Comparison of Means: Chernoff Faces and Star Plots
Inliers
Checking adverse event rates
Correlation checks
Variance checks
Categorical variables

Web applications

This online application allows the user to design randomised phase 2 trials (with either 2 or 3 arms) using a margin of practical equivalence. This work was done by Dr. Hakim-Moulay Dehbi and will be published in a scientific journal in the near future.

Click here

Training resources and materials