Assessing methods for dealing with treatment switching in randomised controlled trials: a simulation study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We investigate methods used to analyse the results of clinical trials with survival outcomes in which some patients switch from their allocated treatment to another trial treatment. These included simple methods which are commonly used in medical literature and may be subject to selection bias if patients switching are not typical of the population as a whole. Methods which attempt to adjust the estimated treatment effect, either through adjustment to the hazard ratio or via accelerated failure time models, were also considered. A simulation study was conducted to assess the performance of each method in a number of different scenarios.

Results

16 different scenarios were identified which differed by the proportion of patients switching, underlying prognosis of sw

SUBMITTER: Morden JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3024998 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature