Linked Life Data

12921928

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/12921928

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
7
pubmed:dateCreated
2003-8-18
pubmed:abstractText
Early stopping of a clinical trial is well accepted when there is enough evidence for a significant effect. However, during the course of a trial, there can be reasons to consider early termination for "futility." In epidemiologic studies, costly or destructive laboratory tests or slow case accrual can make it desirable to stop a study early for reasons of efficiency. Estimation of the conditional power (CP) is proposed as a decision tool to stop a study early or to continue it. We consider the disadvantages of this method. We propose (group) sequential continuation of the trial or study as a less arbitrary strategy. We re-analyzed two data sets from the literature to illustrate the advantages of a sequential approach. We conclude that (group) sequential analyses have several advantages over CP. More studies should consider a sequential design and analysis to enable early stopping when enough evidence has accumulated to conclude a lack of the expected effect. Such a strategy can save valuable resources for more promising hypotheses.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jul
pubmed:issn
0895-4356
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
56
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
610-7
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-15
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2003
pubmed:articleTitle
Early stopping in clinical trials and epidemiologic studies for "futility": conditional power versus sequential analysis.
pubmed:affiliation
Centre for Biostatistics, Utrecht University, Centrumgebouw Noord C122, Padualaan 14, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. i.vandertweel@bio.uu.nl
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article