Question

A new idea for treating advanced melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer: Genetically engineer white blood cells to better recognize and destroy cancer cells, and then infuse these cells into patients. The subjects in a small initial study of this treatment were 11 patients whose melanoma had not responded to existing treatments. One question was how rapidly the new cells would multiply after infusion, as measured by the doubling time (in days).

The doubling times are provided: 1.4 1.0 1.3 1.0 1.3 2.0 0.6 0.8 0.7 0.9 1.9

Are you willing to use this interval to make an inference about the mean doubling time in a population of similar patients? Select all statements that are correct.

a) A larger sample size would be preferable.

b) The standard deviation is too large for a sample of this size.

c) This interval could serve as a preliminary estimate of the population mean, μ.

d) The interval is not a good estimate of mean doubling time.

Answer 1