Survival analysis in clinical trials: Basics and must know areas

Abstract

Many clinical trials involve following patients for a long time. The primary event of interest in those studies is death, relapse, adverse drug reaction or development of a new disease. The follow-up time for the study may range from few weeks to many years. A different set of statistical procedures are employed to analyze the data, which involves time to event an analysis. It is a very useful tool in clinical research and provides invaluable information about an intervention. This article introduces the researcher to the different tools of survival analysis.

Nanopharmacology in translational hematology and oncology

“…16 In cancer chemotherapy, the clinician aims to achieve a good therapeutic index, which is the ratio of the lethal dose for 50% of the population to the minimum effective dose for 50% of the population. 17 However, cancer is most often characterized by multidrug resistance (MDR) and thus scientists have developed new ways to target the MDR cells. 18 MDR cells are known to be frequently located in hypoxic areas, distant from any blood supply, thus overcoming the natural barrier of drug efflux pump activity.…”

In vivo assessment of bone marrow toxicity by gold nanoparticle-based bioconjugates in Crl:CD1(ICR) mice

“…The dynamic reaction cell was used in radiofrequency-only mode, and a quantitative method was developed for measuring Au concentration in liquid samples. After a semiquantitative run to assess the Au content, the calibration curve covered the interval from 1 to 50 (1,5,10, and 50 μg/L) to ensure that concentration of all the samples fits the chosen range without dilution.…”

“…8,9 In cancer chemotherapy, the clinician aims to achieve a good therapeutic index, which is the ratio of the lethal dose for 50% of the population to the minimum effective dose for 50% of the population. 10 But cancer is most often…”

Mood-Stabilizing Agents

“…Nevertheless, survival analysis is attractive for making use of the contributions of all subjects while they remain in a treatment trial. The method even tolerates missing data or early dropouts, both of which are very common, especially with longer trials as are required for studies of prophylactic effects in an illness that may recur at approximately yearly intervals [ 86,185,312 ] . Although the method is technically appealing, it has rarely been tested for the validity of time-to-a-next-episode recurrence as an implicit surrogate measure for prolonged stability or wellness.…”