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Modern Clinical Trial Analysis pp 81–125Cite as

Analysis of Sequential Clinical Trials

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Abstract

We discuss issues and methods for the analysis of clinical trials that have formal rules for what is commonly referred to as early stopping. However, we take a broader view, and include trials having a formal sequential stopping rule; the distinction will soon become apparent. Moreover, it is impossible to separate the analysis of such trials from their design, and so we must, of necessity, provide an overview of the design—that is, specification of the stopping rule—of a sequential clinical trial as well.

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Acknowledgments

The services of Xiao Zhang with SAS programming, the Appendix, and the figures are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA

    W. Jackson Hall

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  1. W. Jackson Hall
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Correspondence to W. Jackson Hall .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine & Dentistry, Dept. Biostatistics & Computational, University of Rochester, Elmwood Ave. 601, Rochester, 14642, New York, USA

    Wan Tang

  2. School of Medicine & Dentistry, Dept. Biostatistics & Computational, University of Rochester, Elmwood Ave. 601, Rochester, 14642, New York, USA

    Xin Tu

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Hall, W.J. (2012). Analysis of Sequential Clinical Trials. In: Tang, W., Tu, X. (eds) Modern Clinical Trial Analysis. Applied Bioinformatics and Biostatistics in Cancer Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4322-3_4

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