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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 24, No 28 (October 1), 2006: pp. 4523-4525 © 2006 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2006.08.6587
Sam Wieand, PhDUniversity of Pennsylvania Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA
National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project Operations Office, Pittsburgh, PA From Daniel G. Haller, MD Among the many lucky things that have happened to me as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) was the recruitment of Sam Wieand as Deputy Editor for biostatistics. He was in the midst of transforming the quality of this aspect of the JCO when I received an e-mail from him on May 12, 2006, regretting that his illness would prevent him from carrying out his work with the diligence and expertise for which he was known. Knowing that we were about to embark on a review issue of biostatistics in oncology, he was concerned about his ability to give the project his full attention—this, as he was becoming more ill, and soon to die. Rather than being the only one to write about Sam, I decided to allow some of his oldest colleagues to remember him to you. I am prompted by a poem by W.H. Auden: "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. From Michael J. O'Connell, MD Harry S. "Sam" Wieand, PhD, was an exceptional individual. Sam was an accomplished cancer clinical trials' biostatistician who brought a special perspective to his work, considering his own personal history of Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that spanned several decades. Because he had undergone both extensive radiation therapy and intensive chemotherapy himself, he was able to evaluate the risk/benefit ratio of new cancer therapies from a unique point of view. Sam brought more than log-rank statistics and proportional hazards models to the clinical trials process—he brought a personal understanding of the hopes, travails, and challenges faced by patients undergoing cancer treatment that had an impact on the design and interpretation of the clinical trials he worked on. Dr Wieand served as Group Statistician for both the North Central Cancer Treatment Group and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP). But Sam was much more than a very capable biostatistician. He was a dedicated teacher, mentor, and advocate for young statisticians and mathematicians. He took special joy in promoting the success of his junior colleagues. He was always willing to tackle a new clinical trial or to address a new research question. His quick wit, sense of humor, good nature, and friendship were universally valued by the many whose lives he touched. He brought enthusiasm to everything he did, ranging from sports to socializing with friends, to spending time with family at his beloved cabin in the woods of western Pennsylvania. Sam Wieand consistently demonstrated personal integrity and humility while always being willing to help others. He was a good friend, a good person, and a valued colleague. His intellect, talent, and good humor were widely recognized, and will be sorely missed. From Daniel Sargent, MD To state that from 1987 to 1995 Dr Sam Wieand served as Director of Cancer Center Statistics at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (Rochester, MN) and as Group Statistician of the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG) simply recites selected titles and responsibilities from an illustrious career. Sam is remembered not only for these administrative accomplishments, but for his stature as a scientist and compassionate human being. During his tenure at Mayo and throughout his career, which included statistical leadership within the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project, Sam demonstrated a remarkable ability to marry unflinching scientific integrity, real-world clinical trials practicality, empathy for patients, and collegiality in the finest sense of the word. That he served after battling both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a testimony to his commitment and emotional fortitude. Dr Heidi Nelson has recited the following to me, reflective of so many experiences with Sam: I met Sam so long ago The landmark Laparoscopic Colectomy Trial that Drs Nelson and Wieand championed reflects one of Sam's many brilliant scientific and statistical contributions.2 After passing primary statistical responsibility to me in the late 1990s, he said (and I paraphrase) that he knew the trial would not likely accrue the full sample size, but any randomized data, even a couple hundred patients, would be better than all the case series all the journals could publish. Long before formal nonequivalence trials had even been identified in the statistical literature, and well in advance of the modern adaptive design trend, Sam included both attributes in the Laparoscopic Colectomy Trial; prespecifying a precise nonequivalence boundary, as well as a prospective modification to the analysis based on attained sample size. He also published innovative yet practical approaches to trial monitoring, which are still in common use, as well as published multiple papers on clinical trial design and survival analysis.3 Sam's devotion as a friend and colleague mirrors his scientific accomplishments. Perhaps Sam's most notable characteristic was his sense of humor—a friendly and warm humor that welcomed friendship. With Sam, there was no distinction of people by their titles or professional stature; rather, he embraced all through his sincerity, humility, and humor. He was also the prototypical mentor, pushing each to achieve their best while allowing and accepting short-term set-backs. A note from a colleague reflects Sam's manner: "Sam called me once (as an editor) with questions about a paper of mine that was under review. He said, ‘I think I must be reading this wrong (he wasn't). I was hoping you could clear up my thinking here, when you say X, does it mean that Y is true (which was mistakenly stated in the draft paper), or could it mean that Z might instead be true (which was indeed the correct interpretation)? After a cordial discussion typical of Sam, he finished by thanking me for ‘correcting his thinking’ (when it was my thinking that required correcting), and indicated he would forward the paper on with a comment that ‘a minor clarification would be helpful to the readers.’" On news of his disease recurrence and ultimate death, the outpouring of sentiment from everyone he touched was remarkable, spanning the spectrum from scientists and physicians to programmers and data managers, including those at the Mayo Clinic (11 years after his departure). His compassion, humility, sense of humor, and integrity will long be remembered. From Joseph P. Costantino, MD The NSABP and the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA) will greatly miss Sam Wieand. He was a highly accomplished academician, a respected scientific leader, an astute administrator, and a dear friend to those of us who were fortunate to have worked with him in Pittsburgh. In his distinguished career, he served as the director of statistical operations for two prominent clinical trial cooperative groups, the NCCTG at the Mayo Clinic and the NSABP at the University of Pittsburgh. Sam became the Director of the NSABP Biostatistical Center in 1995. This was a time when the organization was facing major challenges of its integrity related to an external incident of a clinician from outside the United States. Most people would not have considered taking a position of leadership in such embattled times, but Sam did not waiver. As in all aspects of his life, Sam was one who always made his decisions based on what he believed was the right thing to do, not the easiest or safest thing to do. As he always did, Sam worked steadfastly at his task. It was only a short time before the NSABP Biostatistical Center rose again to be respected as a world leader in clinical trials methodology, raising the level of recognition to a point that was substantially higher than that ever previously obtained in the organization's history. Sam decided to relinquish his administrative responsibilities as Director of the NSABP in 2000 to become the Director of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, where he had success similar to that which he had at the NSABP. When he gave up the reins of leadership at the NSABP Biostatistical Center, Sam handed over an organization that was vibrant and highly productive, making the task of leadership for those of us who served after him simply a matter of maintaining the course. Since relinquishing his administrative responsibilities at the NSABP, Sam remained actively involved in the group's research mission and in the mission of the Graduate School of Public Health, serving as the protocol statistician on several key NSABP colorectal cancer treatment trials and mentoring several graduate students and junior faculty. This latter aspect, mentoring, was one that Sam believed was a key obligation and was another activity at which he excelled. He was an outstanding teacher whose lectures were presented with insight and clarity. The students taking his courses ranked him high on the list of faculty within the Department of Biostatistics and many sought to enlist him as the academic advisor for their doctoral dissertations. Those students who had him as their advisor were fortunate to have a learned mentor who tutored with passion while being a warm, caring, and unselfish individual, seeking to enhance the student's knowledge and advance their professional careers. These traits were innate to Sam, who exhibited them in all of his collaborations, whether with a student, a fellow faculty member, or a clinical associate. He always sought to communicate knowledge and promote the recognition of his collaborators, but never sought recognition for himself. Sam was truly a rare individual in this regard. His professional contributions comprise a long and impressive list of accomplishments, yet he remained a humble man who genuinely cared about the lives and welfare of all of those who worked around him. The world has lost not only a man who was a stellar example of a leader in the statistical and clinical trials research arenas, but also has lost a man who was a stellar example of a human being. From Norman Wolmark, MD It was my privilege to have known Sam Wieand, as a statistician, colleague, and, above all, as a friend. Sam and I first became acquainted in the early 1980s when we were both relegated to projects thought to be unworthy by both our immediate and more remote superiors. As a result, Sam and I would labor in a relatively insular environment, delving into the nuances of the prognostic significance of various factors in operable colorectal cancer, such as the influence of depth of penetration and tumor size, and the contributions or lack thereof of the modifications of the Dukes' classification (eventually this area of neglect expanded to include all of colorectal adjuvant therapy). In the process, we developed a lifelong friendship and I developed a well-evolved level of respect, admiration, and affection for Sam. Sam left Pittsburgh and the NSABP to become the Director of the Biostatistical Center at the Mayo Clinic, only to return in 1995 to become the Director of the Biostatistical Center of the NSABP. This was a most fortunate event for us because the NSABP had just emerged from its own trying political events of 1994. With Sam's leadership of the Biostatistical Center, we were able to emerge from this crisis; I am sure that we would not have been as successful were it not for Sam's talented stewardship. I will always remember Sam as an individual with a commanding presence that was unique in that it was not overbearing, abrasive, or brassy. He was articulate and responsive with a delightful mix of sarcasm that was neither biting nor demeaning. Perhaps the attribute that best characterized Sam Wieand was his irreverent sense of humor that would arise under the most interesting circumstances. During a high-level protocol meeting, Sam turned to me and asked whether I knew the difference between an extroverted biostatistician and an introverted biostatistician. When I responded that I did not, he enlightened me by pointing out that the extroverted statistician would look at your shoes when he talked to you. It was evident that Sam was neither of these types of statisticians in that he would look you straight in the eye, articulate his point in a definitive, well-thought-out, and analytic manner, and gently smile as the foolishness of the argument that he had just refuted became apparent. On April 30, 2006, at our NSABP meeting in Denver, CO, we acknowledged Sam's contributions to the NSABP on the event of his formal retirement from the group and from his academic position at the University of Pittsburgh. Little did we all know at that time that for many of us, those colleagues who respected, loved, and admired him, it would be the last time that we would be with him. As is undoubtedly the case for so many of his other friends, I am left with a void and a great sense of loss. Sam, we will miss your warmth, your compassion, your expertise, and your sense of humor. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Dr Sargent wishes to thank Heidi Nelson, MD, for sharing her memory of Dr Wieand, and many Mayo colleagues for sharing their insights and recollections. REFERENCES 1. Funeral Blues, in Auden WH: Collected Poems. New York, NY, Vintage, 1991 2. The Writing Committee of the Clinical Outcomes of Surgical Therapy Study Group responsible for the reporting of the Laparoscopic Colectomy Trial: A comparative evaluation of laparoscopic-assisted versus open colectomy for colon cancer. N Engl J Med 350:2050-2059, 2004 3. Wieand S, Schroeder G, O'Fallon JR: Stopping when the experimental regimen does not appear to help. Stat Med 13:1453-1458, 1994[Medline]
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Copyright © 2006 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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