ArticleCancer medicine2024
De-Mystifying the Clone-Censor-Weight Method for Causal Research Using Observational Data: A Primer for Cancer Researchers.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Morning versus afternoon administration of immune checkpoint inhibitors in metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Trial
- Association between timing of statin treatment after diabetes diagnosis and risk of dementia: a nationwide observational study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Addressing Immortal Time Bias in Estimating the Effect of Prophylactic Antiseizure Medication after Lobar Intracerebral Hemorrhage.Neurocritical care · 2026Article
- Active Monitoring versus Surgical Excision for Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Observational
- Mycophenolate and azathioprine in fibrotic interstitial lung disease.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2026Observational
- Primary care physician documentation in oncology electronic health records: prognostic marker or immortal-time bias?ESMO real world data and digital oncology · 2026Article
- Initiation of Gabapentin with Opioids and Risk of Respiratory Cardiovascular and Opioid-Related Adverse Events Following Surgery for Breast Cancer.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Strengthening Pharmacovigilance in Latin America: Multidisciplinary Insights from Two ISoP Latin American Chapter Symposia.Drug safety · 2026Review
- Timing of Antidiabetic Medication Initiation and Risk of Cardiovascular Events and Mortality.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Studying When to Add Biological Therapy to Cytotoxic Therapy in Advanced Cancer Care Using Real World Data: How to Avoid Design Choices That Generate Immortal Time.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- An operational target trial emulation framework for causal inference using electronic health record data.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Review
- Identifying and avoiding design related biases in observational studies using the target trial framework.BMJ medicine · 2026Article
- Early versus delayed enteral nutrition in septic shock: a target trial emulation study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- When to Start, How to Classify, and Whom to Include: A Methodological Assessment and Illustrative Example of the Clone-Censor-Weight Approach for Evaluating Intervention Timing in Observational Studies.Clinical epidemiology · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and molnupiravir in reducing the risk of short-term and long-term cardiovascular complications of COVID-19: a target trial emulation study.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Can Prostate Cancer Screening Reduce Mortality in Men Aged 75-79 Years? A Protocol for Target-trial Emulation.European urology open science · 2025Article
- Opportunities, challenges and future perspectives for target trial emulation in critical care clinical research.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Review
- Interventional Treatment vs Conservative Management of Unruptured Brain Arteriovenous Malformations.JAMA network open · 2025Observational
- Fecal immunochemical test surveillance in colorectal cancer following adenoma resection: A longitudinal, population-based linked cohort study in China.PLoS medicine · 2025Article
- Early use of albumin may increase the risk of sepsis-associated acute kidney injury in sepsis patients: a target trial emulation.Military Medical Research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRegulators and oncology healthcare providers are increasingly interested in using observational studies of real-world data (RWD) to complement clinical evidence from randomized controlled trials for informed decision-making. To generate valid evidence, RWD studies must be carefully designed to avoid systematic biases. The clone-censor-weight (CCW) method has been proposed to address immortal time and other time-related biases.
methodsThe objective of this manuscript is to de-mystify the CCW method for cancer researchers by describing and presenting its core components in an accessible and digestible format, using visualizations and examples from cancer-relevant studies. The CCW method has been applied in diverse settings, including investigations of the effects of surgery within a certain time after cancer diagnosis, the continuation of annual screening mammography, and chemotherapy duration on survival.
resultsThe method handles complex data wherein the treatment group to which an individual belongs is unknown at the start of follow-up. The three steps of the CCW method involve cloning or duplicating the patient population and assigning one clone to each treatment strategy, artificially censoring the clones when their observed data are inconsistent with the assigned strategy and weighting the cloned and censored population to address selection bias created by the artificial censoring.
conclusionsThe CCW method is a powerful tool for designing RWD studies in cancer that are free from time-related biases and successfully, to the extent possible, emulate features of a randomized clinical trial.
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Registered trials
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.