Karl E. Peace

Now viewed as its own scientific discipline, clinical trial methodology encompasses the methods required for the protection of participants in a clinical trial and the methods necessary to provide a valid inference about the objective of the trial. Drawing from the authors’ courses on the subject as well as the first author’s more than 30 years working in the pharmaceutical industry, Clinical Trial Methodology emphasizes the importance of statistical thinking in clinical research and presents the methodology as a key component of clinical research. From ethical issues and sample size considerations to adaptive design procedures and statistical analysis, the book first covers the methodology that spans every clinical trial regardless of the area of application. Crucial to the generic drug industry, bioequivalence clinical trials are then discussed. The authors describe a parallel bioequivalence clinical trial of six formulations incorporating group sequential procedures that permit sample size re-estimation. The final chapters incorporate real-world case studies of clinical trials from the authors’ own experiences. These examples include a landmark Phase III clinical trial involving the treatment of duodenal ulcers and Phase III clinical trials that contributed to the first drug approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Aided by the U. S. FDA, the U. S. National Institutes of Health, the pharmaceutical industry, and academia, the area of clinical trial methodology has evolved over the last six decades into a scientific discipline. This guide explores the processes essential for developing and conducting a quality clinical trial protocol and providing quality data collection, biostatistical analyses, and a clinical study report, all while maintaining the highest standards of ethics and excellence.

This book aims to compile typical fundamental-to-advanced statistical methods to be used for health data sciences. Although the book promotes applications to health and health-related data, the models in the book can be used to analyze any kind of data. The data are analyzed with the commonly used statistical software of R/SAS (with online supplementary on SPSS/Stata). The data and computing programs will be available to facilitate readers’ learning experience. There has been considerable attention to making statistical methods and analytics available to health data science researchers and students. This book brings it all together to provide a concise point-of-reference for the most commonly used statistical methods from the fundamental level to the advanced level. We envisage this book will contribute to the rapid development in health data science. We provide straightforward explanations of the collected statistical theory and models, compilations of a variety of publicly available data, and illustrations of data analytics using commonly used statistical software of SAS/R. We will have the data and computer programs available for readers to replicate and implement the new methods. The primary readers would be applied data scientists and practitioners in any field of data science, applied statistical analysts and scientists in public health, academic researchers, and graduate students in statistics and biostatistics. The secondary readers would be R&D professionals/practitioners in industry and governmental agencies. This book can be used for both teaching and applied research.

Review of the First Edition:The authors strive to reduce theory to a minimum, which makes it a self-learning text that is comprehensible for biologists, physicians, etc. who lack an advanced mathematics background. Unlike in many other textbooks, R is not introduced with meaningless toy examples; instead the reader is taken by the hand and shown around some analyses, graphics, and simulations directly relating to meta-analysis… A useful hands-on guide for practitioners who want to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of meta-analysis and get started without having to plough through theorems and proofs.—Journal of Applied StatisticsStatistical Meta-Analysis with R and Stata, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of statistical meta-analyses (MA) with step-by-step implementations using R/Stata. The authors develop analysis step by step using appropriate R/Stata functions, which enables readers to gain an understanding of meta-analysis methods and R/Stata implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own meta-data. Each chapter gives examples of real studies compiled from the literature. After presenting the data and necessary background for understanding the applications, various methods for analyzing meta-data are introduced. The authors then develop analysis code using the appropriate R/Stata packages and functions. What’s New in the Second Edition: Adds Stata programs along with the R programs for meta-analysis Updates all the statistical meta-analyses with R/Stata programs Covers fixed-effects and random-effects MA, meta-regression, MA with rare-event, and MA-IPD vs MA-SS Adds five new chapters on multivariate MA, publication bias, missing data in MA, MA in evaluating diagnostic accuracy, and network MASuitable as a graduate-level text for a meta-data analysis course, the book is also a valuable reference for practitioners and biostatisticians (even those with little or no experience in using R or Stata) in public health, medical research, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Review of the First Edition:The authors strive to reduce theory to a minimum, which makes it a self-learning text that is comprehensible for biologists, physicians, etc. who lack an advanced mathematics background. Unlike in many other textbooks, R is not introduced with meaningless toy examples; instead the reader is taken by the hand and shown around some analyses, graphics, and simulations directly relating to meta-analysis… A useful hands-on guide for practitioners who want to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of meta-analysis and get started without having to plough through theorems and proofs.—Journal of Applied StatisticsStatistical Meta-Analysis with R and Stata, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of statistical meta-analyses (MA) with step-by-step implementations using R/Stata. The authors develop analysis step by step using appropriate R/Stata functions, which enables readers to gain an understanding of meta-analysis methods and R/Stata implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own meta-data. Each chapter gives examples of real studies compiled from the literature. After presenting the data and necessary background for understanding the applications, various methods for analyzing meta-data are introduced. The authors then develop analysis code using the appropriate R/Stata packages and functions. What’s New in the Second Edition: Adds Stata programs along with the R programs for meta-analysis Updates all the statistical meta-analyses with R/Stata programs Covers fixed-effects and random-effects MA, meta-regression, MA with rare-event, and MA-IPD vs MA-SS Adds five new chapters on multivariate MA, publication bias, missing data in MA, MA in evaluating diagnostic accuracy, and network MASuitable as a graduate-level text for a meta-data analysis course, the book is also a valuable reference for practitioners and biostatisticians (even those with little or no experience in using R or Stata) in public health, medical research, governmental agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry.

Review of the First Edition"The goal of this book, as stated by the authors, is to fill the knowledge gap that exists between developed statistical methods and the applications of these methods. Overall, this book achieves the goal successfully and does a nice job. I would highly recommend it …The example-based approach is easy to follow and makes the book a very helpful desktop reference for many biostatistics methods."—Journal of Statistical SoftwareClinical Trial Data Analysis Using R and SAS, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of biostatistical analyses of clinical trial data with step-by-step implementations using R and SAS. The book’s practical, detailed approach draws on the authors’ 30 years’ experience in biostatistical research and clinical development. The authors develop step-by-step analysis code using appropriate R packages and functions and SAS PROCS, which enables readers to gain an understanding of the analysis methods and R and SAS implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own clinical trial data. What’s New in the Second Edition Adds SAS programs along with the R programs for clinical trial data analysis. Updates all the statistical analysis with updated R packages. Includes correlated data analysis with multivariate analysis of variance. Applies R and SAS to clinical trial data from hypertension, duodenal ulcer, beta blockers, familial andenomatous polyposis, and breast cancer trials. Covers the biostatistical aspects of various clinical trials, including treatment comparisons, time-to-event endpoints, longitudinal clinical trials, and bioequivalence trials.

Review of the First Edition"The goal of this book, as stated by the authors, is to fill the knowledge gap that exists between developed statistical methods and the applications of these methods. Overall, this book achieves the goal successfully and does a nice job. I would highly recommend it …The example-based approach is easy to follow and makes the book a very helpful desktop reference for many biostatistics methods."—Journal of Statistical SoftwareClinical Trial Data Analysis Using R and SAS, Second Edition provides a thorough presentation of biostatistical analyses of clinical trial data with step-by-step implementations using R and SAS. The book’s practical, detailed approach draws on the authors’ 30 years’ experience in biostatistical research and clinical development. The authors develop step-by-step analysis code using appropriate R packages and functions and SAS PROCS, which enables readers to gain an understanding of the analysis methods and R and SAS implementation so that they can use these two popular software packages to analyze their own clinical trial data. What’s New in the Second Edition Adds SAS programs along with the R programs for clinical trial data analysis. Updates all the statistical analysis with updated R packages. Includes correlated data analysis with multivariate analysis of variance. Applies R and SAS to clinical trial data from hypertension, duodenal ulcer, beta blockers, familial andenomatous polyposis, and breast cancer trials. Covers the biostatistical aspects of various clinical trials, including treatment comparisons, time-to-event endpoints, longitudinal clinical trials, and bioequivalence trials.

Now viewed as its own scientific discipline, clinical trial methodology encompasses the methods required for the protection of participants in a clinical trial and the methods necessary to provide a valid inference about the objective of the trial. Drawing from the authors’ courses on the subject as well as the first author’s more than 30 years working in the pharmaceutical industry, Clinical Trial Methodology emphasizes the importance of statistical thinking in clinical research and presents the methodology as a key component of clinical research. From ethical issues and sample size considerations to adaptive design procedures and statistical analysis, the book first covers the methodology that spans every clinical trial regardless of the area of application. Crucial to the generic drug industry, bioequivalence clinical trials are then discussed. The authors describe a parallel bioequivalence clinical trial of six formulations incorporating group sequential procedures that permit sample size re-estimation. The final chapters incorporate real-world case studies of clinical trials from the authors’ own experiences. These examples include a landmark Phase III clinical trial involving the treatment of duodenal ulcers and Phase III clinical trials that contributed to the first drug approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Aided by the U. S. FDA, the U. S. National Institutes of Health, the pharmaceutical industry, and academia, the area of clinical trial methodology has evolved over the last six decades into a scientific discipline. This guide explores the processes essential for developing and conducting a quality clinical trial protocol and providing quality data collection, biostatistical analyses, and a clinical study report, all while maintaining the highest standards of ethics and excellence.