title: Adaptive assignment versus balanced randomization in clinical trials: a decision analysis.
abstract: We compare balanced randomization with four adaptive treatment allocation procedures in a clinical trial involving two treatments. The objective is to treat as many patients in and out of the trial as effectively as possible. Randomization is a satisfactory solution to the decision problem when the disease in question is at least moderately common. Adaptive procedures are more difficult to use, but might play a role in clinical research when a substantial proportion of all patients with the disease are included in the trial.
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Institute of Statistics and Decision Sciences, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Eick
mesh_terms: D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D018579:Patient Selection; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design