title: Effects of treatment-induced mortality and tumor-induced mortality on tests for carcinogenicity in small samples.
abstract: Statistical tests of carcinogenicity are shown to have varying degrees of robustness to the effects of mortality. Mortality induced by two different mechanisms is studied--mortality due to the tumor of interest, and mortality due to treatment independent of the tumor. The two most commonly used tests, the life-table test and the Cochran-Armitage linear trend test, are seen to be highly sensitive to increases in treatment lethality using small-sample simulations. Increases in tumor lethality are seen to affect the performance of commonly used prevalence tests such as logistic regression. A simple survival-adjusted quantal response test appears to be the most robust of all the procedures considered.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biometry and Risk Assessment, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Bailer
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Portier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009152:Mutagenicity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D013269:Stochastic Processes