Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40229621›Full record

ArticleTherapeutic innovation & regulatory science2025

Futility Interim Analyses - A Plea for Simplicity.

Gian-Andrea Thanei, Gaëlle Klingelschmitt, Claude Berge, Hans Ulrich Burger

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Therapeutic innovation & regulatory science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

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

4 authors.

Gian-Andrea ThaneiProduct Development Data Sciences, Pharma Development, Roche, Basel, Switzerland. gian-andrea.thanei@roche.com.
Gaëlle KlingelschmittProduct Development Data Sciences, Pharma Development, Roche, Basel, Switzerland.
Claude BergeProduct Development Data Sciences, Pharma Development, Roche, Basel, Switzerland.
Hans Ulrich BurgerProduct Development Data Sciences, Pharma Development, Roche, Basel, Switzerland.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Futility interim analyses remain a topic of anxiety for most clinical drug development teams. While they can significantly reduce the risk involved in the development of innovative therapies and do so at a minimal cost, they are not used frequently enough. Development teams often shy away due to the fear of terminating a potentially successful therapy by mistake. We believe these risks are overestimated and hence necessitate a simple and effective communication to be better understood. The planning of futilities often evolves into complex statistical modeling exercises where various scenarios are simulated and multiple risk metrics are calculated. To assist teams in such discussions we propose a straightforward strategy for establishing a range for the futility threshold and an intuitive futility risk measure to evaluate the associated risks.

Indexed as

Clinical Trials as TopicDrug DevelopmentMedical FutilityHumansModels, StatisticalClinical drug developmentFutility interim analysisFutility riskOperating characteristicsRetrospective futility analysis

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

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.