Clinically useful measures to assess the effectiveness of treatments: hints for a proper choice with special emphasis on cancer research.
Several absolute and relative measures useful to assess the consequences of treatments in cancer research are presented together with statistical methods suitable for computing the pertinent confidence intervals. The relationship of these measures with the parameters of the regression models commonly used in the analysis of survival data is elaborated upon. Three examples are elaborated, and conditions of interchangeability of the measures are discussed in detail. Finally, suggestions for the choice of the measure most appropriate for a specified data set are given.
Boracchi
P
P
Divisione di Statistica e Biometria, Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Milano, Italy.
Mezzanotte
G
G
Mariani
L
L
Valagussa
P
P
Marubini
E
E
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D012306:Risk; D013223:Statistics as Topic