This book details all aspects of sequential clinical trials from preliminary planning, through the monitoring of the trial, to the final analysis of the results.
Clinical trials are used to elucidate the most appropriate preventive, diagnostic, or treatment options for individuals with a given medical condition. Perhaps the most essential feature of a clinical trial is that it aims to use results based on a limited sample of research participants to see if the intervention is safe and effective or if it is comparable to a comparison treatment. Sample size is a crucial component of any clinical trial. A trial with a small number of research participants is more prone to variability and carries a considerable risk of failing to demonstrate the effectiveness of a given intervention when one really is present. This may occur in phase I (safety and pharmacologic profiles), II (pilot efficacy evaluation), and III (extensive assessment of safety and efficacy) trials. Although phase I and II studies may have smaller sample sizes, they usually have adequate statistical power, which is the committee's definition of a "large" trial. Sometimes a trial with eight participants may have adequate statistical power, statistical power being the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when the hypothesis is false. Small Clinical Trials assesses the current methodologies and the appropriate situations for the conduct of clinical trials with small sample sizes. This report assesses the published literature on various strategies such as (1) meta-analysis to combine disparate information from several studies including Bayesian techniques as in the confidence profile method and (2) other alternatives such as assessing therapeutic results in a single treated population (e.g., astronauts) by sequentially measuring whether the intervention is falling above or below a preestablished probability outcome range and meeting predesigned specifications as opposed to incremental improvement.
Sequential Experimentation in Clinical Trials: Design and Analysis is developed from decades of work in research groups, statistical pedagogy, and workshop participation. Different parts of the book can be used for short courses on clinical trials, translational medical research, and sequential experimentation. The authors have successfully used the book to teach innovative clinical trial designs and statistical methods for Statistics Ph.D. students at Stanford University. There are additional online supplements for the book that include chapter-specific exercises and information. Sequential Experimentation in Clinical Trials: Design and Analysis covers the much broader subject of sequential experimentation that includes group sequential and adaptive designs of Phase II and III clinical trials, which have attracted much attention in the past three decades. In particular, the broad scope of design and analysis problems in sequential experimentation clearly requires a wide range of statistical methods and models from nonlinear regression analysis, experimental design, dynamic programming, survival analysis, resampling, and likelihood and Bayesian inference. The background material in these building blocks is summarized in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 and certain sections in Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Besides group sequential tests and adaptive designs, the book also introduces sequential change-point detection methods in Chapter 5 in connection with pharmacovigilance and public health surveillance. Together with dynamic programming and approximate dynamic programming in Chapter 3, the book therefore covers all basic topics for a graduate course in sequential analysis designs.
Group sequential methods answer the needs of clinical trial monitoring committees who must assess the data available at an interim analysis. These interim results may provide grounds for terminating the study-effectively reducing costs-or may benefit the general patient population by allowing early dissemination of its findings. Group sequential methods provide a means to balance the ethical and financial advantages of stopping a study early against the risk of an incorrect conclusion. Group Sequential Methods with Applications to Clinical Trials describes group sequential stopping rules designed to reduce average study length and control Type I and II error probabilities. The authors present one-sided and two-sided tests, introduce several families of group sequential tests, and explain how to choose the most appropriate test and interim analysis schedule. Their topics include placebo-controlled randomized trials, bio-equivalence testing, crossover and longitudinal studies, and linear and generalized linear models. Research in group sequential analysis has progressed rapidly over the past 20 years. Group Sequential Methods with Applications to Clinical Trials surveys and extends current methods for planning and conducting interim analyses. It provides straightforward descriptions of group sequential hypothesis tests in a form suited for direct application to a wide variety of clinical trials. Medical statisticians engaged in any investigations planned with interim analyses will find this book a useful and important tool.
This edited volume is a definitive text on adaptive clinical trial designs from creation and customization to utilization. As this book covers the full spectrum of topics involved in the adaptive designs arena, it will serve as a valuable reference for researchers working in industry, government and academia. The target audience is anyone involved in the planning and execution of clinical trials, in particular, statisticians, clinicians, pharmacometricians, clinical operation specialists, drug supply managers, and infrastructure providers. In spite of the increased efficiency of adaptive trials in saving costs and time, ultimately getting drugs to patients sooner, their adoption in clinical development is still relatively low. One of the chief reasons is the higher complexity of adaptive design trials as compared to traditional trials. Barriers to the use of clinical trials with adaptive features include the concerns about the integrity of study design and conduct, the risk of regulatory non-acceptance, the need for an advanced infrastructure for complex randomization and clinical supply scenarios, change management for process and behavior modifications, extensive resource requirements for the planning and design of adaptive trials and the potential to relegate key decision makings to outside entities. There have been limited publications that address these practical considerations and recommend best practices and solutions. This book fills this publication gap, providing guidance on practical considerations for adaptive trial design and implementation. The book comprises three parts: Part I focuses on practical considerations from a design perspective, whereas Part II delineates practical considerations related to the implementation of adaptive trials. Putting it all together, Part III presents four illustrative case studies ranging from description and discussion of specific adaptive trial design considerations to the logistic and regulatory issues faced in trial implementation. Bringing together the expertise of leading key opinion leaders from pharmaceutical industry, academia, and regulatory agencies, this book provides a balanced and comprehensive coverage of practical considerations for adaptive trial design and implementation.
ExpDesign Studio facilitates more efficient clinical trial design This book introduces pharmaceutical statisticians, scientists, researchers, and others to ExpDesign Studio software for classical and adaptive designs of clinical trials. It includes the Professional Version 5.0 of ExpDesign Studio software that frees pharmaceutical professionals to focus on drug development and related challenges while the software handles the essential calculations and computations. After a hands-on introduction to the software and an overview of clinical trial designs encompassing numerous variations, Classical and Adaptive Clinical Trial Designs Using ExpDesign Studio: Covers both classical and adaptive clinical trial designs, monitoring, and analyses Explains various classical and adaptive designs including groupsequential, sample-size reestimation, dropping-loser, biomarker-adaptive, and response-adaptive randomization designs Includes instructions for over 100 design methods that have been implemented in ExpDesign Studio and step-by-step demos as well as real-world examples Emphasizes applications, yet covers key mathematical formulations Introduces readers to additional toolkits in ExpDesign Studio that help in designing, monitoring, and analyzing trials, such as the adaptive monitor, graphical calculator, the probability calculator, the confidence interval calculator, and more Presents comprehensive technique notes for sample-size calculation methods, grouped by the number of arms, the trial endpoint, and the analysis basis Written with practitioners in mind, this is an ideal self-study guide for not only statisticians, but also scientists, researchers, and professionals in the pharmaceutical industry, contract research organizations (CROs), and regulatory bodies. It's also a go-to reference for biostatisticians, pharmacokinetic specialists, and principal investigators involved in clinical trials. ERRATUM Classical and Adaptive Clinical Trial Designs Using ExpDesign Studio By Mark Chang The license for the ExpDesign Studio software on the CD included with this book is good for one-year after installation of the software. Prior to the expiration of this period, the software will generate a reminder about renewal for the license. The user should contact CTriSoft International (the owners of ExpDesign Studio) at www.CTriSoft.net or by email at [email protected], about renewal for the license. This should have been made clear in the first printing of this book. We apologize for this error.
This book provides an up-to-date review of the general principles of and techniques for confirmatory adaptive designs. Confirmatory adaptive designs are a generalization of group sequential designs. With these designs, interim analyses are performed in order to stop the trial prematurely under control of the Type I error rate. In adaptive designs, it is also permissible to perform a data-driven change of relevant aspects of the study design at interim stages. This includes, for example, a sample-size reassessment, a treatment-arm selection or a selection of a pre-specified sub-population. Essentially, this adaptive methodology was introduced in the 1990s. Since then, it has become popular and the object of intense discussion and still represents a rapidly growing field of statistical research. This book describes adaptive design methodology at an elementary level, while also considering designing and planning issues as well as methods for analyzing an adaptively planned trial. This includes estimation methods and methods for the determination of an overall p-value. Part I of the book provides the group sequential methods that are necessary for understanding and applying the adaptive design methodology supplied in Parts II and III of the book. The book contains many examples that illustrate use of the methods for practical application. The book is primarily written for applied statisticians from academia and industry who are interested in confirmatory adaptive designs. It is assumed that readers are familiar with the basic principles of descriptive statistics, parameter estimation and statistical testing. This book will also be suitable for an advanced statistical course for applied statisticians or clinicians with a sound statistical background.
In response to the US FDA's Critical Path Initiative, innovative adaptive designs are being used more and more in clinical trials due to their flexibility and efficiency, especially during early phase development. Handbook of Adaptive Designs in Pharmaceutical and Clinical Development provides a comprehensive and unified presentation of the princip
This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.
Translating laboratory discoveries into successful therapeutics can be difficult. Clinical Trials in Neurology aims to improve the efficiency of clinical trials and the development of interventions in order to enhance the development of new treatments for neurologic diseases. It introduces the reader to the key concepts underpinning trials in the neurosciences. This volume tackles the challenges of developing therapies for neurologic disorders from measurement of agents in the nervous system to the progression of clinical signs and symptoms through illustrating specific study designs and their applications to different therapeutic areas. Clinical Trials in Neurology covers key issues in Phase I, II and III clinical trials, as well as post-marketing safety surveillance. Topics addressed include regulatory and implementation issues, outcome measures and common problems in drug development. Written by a multidisciplinary team, this comprehensive guide is essential reading for neurologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, neuroscientists, statisticians and clinical researchers in the pharmaceutical industry.