Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27332704›Full record

ArticlePloS one2016

Using Clinical Trial Simulators to Analyse the Sources of Variance in Clinical Trials of Novel Therapies for Acute Viral Infections.

Carolin Vegvari, Emilie Cauët, Christoforos Hadjichrysanthou, Emma Lawrence, Gerrit-Jan Weverling, Frank de Wolf, Roy M Anderson

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

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  5. Existence of a Conserved Quantity and Stability ofComputational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2019
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Carolin VegvariDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Emilie CauëtDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2923-245X
Christoforos HadjichrysanthouDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Emma LawrenceDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Gerrit-Jan WeverlingJanssen Prevention Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Frank de WolfDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Roy M AndersonDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
Imperial College London · GBJanssen (Netherlands) · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAbout 90% of drugs fail in clinical development. The question is whether trials fail because of insufficient efficacy of the new treatment, or rather because of poor trial design that is unable to detect the true efficacy. The variance of the measured endpoints is a major, largely underestimated source of uncertainty in clinical trial design, particularly in acute viral infections. We use a clinical trial simulator to demonstrate how a thorough consideration of the variability inherent in clinical trials of novel therapies for acute viral infections can improve trial design. METHODS AND

findingsWe developed a clinical trial simulator to analyse the impact of three different types of variation on the outcome of a challenge study of influenza treatments for infected patients, including individual patient variability in the response to the drug, the variance of the measurement procedure, and the variance of the lower limit of quantification of endpoint measurements. In addition, we investigated the impact of protocol variation on clinical trial outcome. We found that the greatest source of variance was inter-individual variability in the natural course of infection. Running a larger phase II study can save up to $38 million, if an unlikely to succeed phase III trial is avoided. In addition, low-sensitivity viral load assays can lead to falsely negative trial outcomes.

conclusionsDue to high inter-individual variability in natural infection, the most important variable in clinical trial design for challenge studies of potential novel influenza treatments is the number of participants. 100 participants are preferable over 50. Using more sensitive viral load assays increases the probability of a positive trial outcome, but may in some circumstances lead to false positive outcomes. Clinical trial simulations are powerful tools to identify the most important sources of variance in clinical trials and thereby help improve trial design.

Indexed as

Clinical Trials as TopicComputer SimulationAcute DiseaseHumansInfluenza, HumanModels, BiologicalSensitivity and SpecificityTime FactorsViral LoadVirus Diseases

Identifiers

PMID27332704
PMCPMC4917234
OpenAlexW2460147934

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.