Bayesian Designs for Phase I-II Clinical Trials

"The book provides a clear and detailed illustration of the motivation, applicability, and implementation of a range of Phase I–II Bayesian adaptive clinical trial designs. …
A significant advantage of the text is its broad and straightforward applicability. For some of the proposed designs, software is freely available from an online repository of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and step-by-step guides on how to implement the designs are often provided. A variety of examples is also included alongside the methodological sections. Moreover, the extensive research experience of the authors often translates into advice on practical issues, which may arise in a trial design, from, for example, guidance on choices, which may affect the reliability and/or effectiveness of the design, to communication dynamics with the clinicians. … Overall, it is a valuable text for those who are willing to design a Phase I–II Bayesian trial, as a reference to some existing designs and recent advancements in the field, and, more generally, for anyone interested in gaining knowledge of such designs, as a tool to explore their applicability and characteristics."
—Silvia Calderazzo, in Biometrical Journal, November 2017

"This book is a must-read for students, statisticians, principal investigators and researchers who wish to apply innovative and more ethical designs for Phase I/II clinical trials. Several statisticians have previously proposed designs for dose-finding studies modelling the dose-toxicity and the dose-efficacy relationships. However such methods have been published in highly specialized statistical/biostatistical journals that are not very accessible nor comprehensible for non-initiated readers. To the best of my knowledge, no book has yet solely focused on the design of Phase I/II clinical trials, despite the fact that these studies represent 33% of all conducted trials (source: ClinicalTrials.gov). This excellent book offers a well written and a step by step guide to planning, conducting and analyzing Phase I/II clinical trials."
—Sarah Zohar, The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), Paris

"Yuan, Nguyen and Thall are statisticians on the forefront of both theoretical statistics and practical implementation of adaptive trial designs, and have combined their knowledge and experience here to provide an exceptional textbook… A highlight of the text is a chapter on choosing priors, where the authors demonstrate that prior calibration is critical. Casual choice of priors can be disastrous in these trials (which have small cohorts and often small sample sizes), and Yuan et al. provide examples to demonstrate how poorly chosen priors can ruin operating characteristics. Complex trial designs are explained in a clear and sensible manner, making the arguments very plainly obvious as to the benefits of these more modern designs. The authors have pioneered adaptive approaches for dose-finding combining toxicity and efficacy trade-offs and present these and other designs that jointly model toxicity and efficacy… The writing style is conversational in places, making this text more enjoyable to read than many other statistics textbooks, and readers will appreciate the chapters that address practical problems often ignored in theoretical clinical trial texts: late onset and cumulative (toxicity) outcomes, molecularly targeted agents, and missing data in adaptive designs. Interactive software with a user-friendly interface is available for many of the designs, with illustrations in the text which demonstrate the implementation."
—Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer, Professor of Biostatistics, Medical University of South Carolina

"This book covers almost every topic that you will need when designing Phase I, Phase II, and Phase I-II clinical trials. Each chapter is a treasure trove of wonderful new ideas, and contains examples - based on the authors' outstandingly broad experiences – that help the reader clearly understand the methodological aspects involved in clinical trials… This book is a "must-have" for every biostatistician involved in clinical trials."
—Satoshi Morita, Department of Biomedical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Kyoto University

"The book provides a clear and detailed illustration of the motivation, applicability, and implementation of a range of Phase I–II Bayesian adaptive clinical trial designs. … A significant advantage of the text is its broad and straightforward applicability. For some of the proposed designs, software is freely available from an online repository of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and step-by-step guides on how to implement the designs are often provided. A variety of examples is also included alongside the methodological sections. Moreover, the extensive research experience of the authors often translates into advice on practical issues, which may arise in a trial design, from, for example, guidance on choices, which may affect the reliability and/or effectiveness of the design, to communication dynamics with the clinicians. … Overall, it is a valuable text for those who are willing to design a Phase I–II Bayesian trial, as a reference to some existing designs and recent advancements in the field, and, more generally, for anyone interested in gaining knowledge of such designs, as a tool to explore their applicability and characteristics."
—Silvia Calderazzo, in Biometrical Journal, November 2017

"This book is a must-read for students, statisticians, principal investigators and researchers who wish to apply innovative and more ethical designs for Phase I/II clinical trials. Several statisticians have previously proposed designs for dose-finding studies modelling the dose-toxicity and the dose-efficacy relationships. However such methods have been published in highly specialized statistical/biostatistical journals that are not very accessible nor comprehensible for non-initiated readers. To the best of my knowledge, no book has yet solely focused on the design of Phase I/II clinical trials, despite the fact that these studies represent 33% of all conducted trials (source: ClinicalTrials.gov). This excellent book offers a well written and a step by step guide to planning, conducting and analyzing Phase I/II clinical trials."
—Sarah Zohar, The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), Paris

"Yuan, Nguyen and Thall are statisticians on the forefront of both theoretical statistics and practical implementation of adaptive trial designs, and have combined their knowledge and experience here to provide an exceptional textbook… A highlight of the text is a chapter on choosing priors, where the authors demonstrate that prior calibration is critical. Casual choice of priors can be disastrous in these trials (which have small cohorts and often small sample sizes), and Yuan et al. provide examples to demonstrate how poorly chosen priors can ruin operating characteristics. Complex trial designs are explained in a clear and sensible manner, making the arguments very plainly obvious as to the benefits of these more modern designs. The authors have pioneered adaptive approaches for dose-finding combining toxicity and efficacy trade-offs and present these and other designs that jointly model toxicity and efficacy… The writing style is conversational in places, making this text more enjoyable to read than many other statistics textbooks, and readers will appreciate the chapters that address practical problems often ignored in theoretical clinical trial texts: late onset and cumulative (toxicity) outcomes, molecularly targeted agents, and missing data in adaptive designs. Interactive software with a user-friendly interface is available for many of the designs, with illustrations in the text which demonstrate the implementation."
—Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer, Professor of Biostatistics, Medical University of South Carolina

"This book covers almost every topic that you will need when designing Phase I, Phase II, and Phase I-II clinical trials. Each chapter is a treasure trove of wonderful new ideas, and contains examples - based on the authors' outstandingly broad experiences – that help the reader clearly understand the methodological aspects involved in clinical trials… This book is a "must-have" for every biostatistician involved in clinical trials."
—Satoshi Morita, Department of Biomedical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Kyoto University