Book excerpt: Biostatistics is defined as much by its application as it is by theory. This book provides an introduction to biostatistical applications in modern cancer research that is both accessible and valuable to the cancer biostatistician or to the cancer researcher, learning biostatistics. The topical areas include active areas of the application of biostatistics to modern cancer research: survival analysis, screening, diagnostics, spatial analysis and the analysis of microarray data. Biostatistics is an essential component of basic and clinical cancer research. The text, authored by distinguished figures in the field, addresses clinical issues in statistical analysis. The spectrum of topics discussed ranges from fundamental methodology to clinical and translational applications.