This classic reference, now updated with the newest applications and results, addresses the fundamentals of such trials based on sound scientific methodology, statistical principles, and years of accumulated experience by the three authors.

Randomized clinical trials are the primary tool for evaluating new medical interventions. Randomization provides for a fair comparison between treatment and control groups, balancing out, on average, distributions of known and unknown factors among the participants. Unfortunately, these studies often lack a substantial percentage of data. This missing data reduces the benefit provided by the randomization and introduces potential biases in the comparison of the treatment groups. Missing data can arise for a variety of reasons, including the inability or unwillingness of participants to meet appointments for evaluation. And in some studies, some or all of data collection ceases when participants discontinue study treatment. Existing guidelines for the design and conduct of clinical trials, and the analysis of the resulting data, provide only limited advice on how to handle missing data. Thus, approaches to the analysis of data with an appreciable amount of missing values tend to be ad hoc and variable. The Prevention and Treatment of Missing Data in Clinical Trials concludes that a more principled approach to design and analysis in the presence of missing data is both needed and possible. Such an approach needs to focus on two critical elements: (1) careful design and conduct to limit the amount and impact of missing data and (2) analysis that makes full use of information on all randomized participants and is based on careful attention to the assumptions about the nature of the missing data underlying estimates of treatment effects. In addition to the highest priority recommendations, the book offers more detailed recommendations on the conduct of clinical trials and techniques for analysis of trial data.

An ideal health care system relies on efficiently generating timely, accurate evidence to deliver on its promise of diminishing the divide between clinical practice and research. There are growing indications, however, that the current health care system and the clinical research that guides medical decisions in the United States falls far short of this vision. The process of generating medical evidence through clinical trials in the United States is expensive and lengthy, includes a number of regulatory hurdles, and is based on a limited infrastructure. The link between clinical research and medical progress is also frequently misunderstood or unsupported by both patients and providers. The focus of clinical research changes as diseases emerge and new treatments create cures for old conditions. As diseases evolve, the ultimate goal remains to speed new and improved medical treatments to patients throughout the world. To keep pace with rapidly changing health care demands, clinical research resources need to be organized and on hand to address the numerous health care questions that continually emerge. Improving the overall capacity of the clinical research enterprise will depend on ensuring that there is an adequate infrastructure in place to support the investigators who conduct research, the patients with real diseases who volunteer to participate in experimental research, and the institutions that organize and carry out the trials. To address these issues and better understand the current state of clinical research in the United States, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation held a 2-day workshop entitled Transforming Clinical Research in the United States. The workshop, summarized in this volume, laid the foundation for a broader initiative of the Forum addressing different aspects of clinical research. Future Forum plans include further examining regulatory, administrative, and structural barriers to the effective conduct of clinical research; developing a vision for a stable, continuously funded clinical research infrastructure in the United States; and considering strategies and collaborative activities to facilitate more robust public engagement in the clinical research enterprise.

This is the first comprehensive guide to the design of behavioral randomized clinical trials (RCT) for chronic diseases. It includes the scientific foundations for behavioral trial methods, problems that have been encountered in past behavioral trials, advances in design that have evolved, and promising trends and opportunities for the future. The value of this book lies in its potential to foster an ability to “speak the language of medicine” through the conduct of high-quality behavioral clinical trials that match the rigor commonly seen in double-blind drug trials. It is relevant for testing any treatment aimed at improving a behavioral, social, psychosocial, environmental, or policy-level risk factor for a chronic disease including, for example, obesity, sedentary behavior, adherence to treatment, psychosocial stress, food deserts, and fragmented care. Outcomes of interest are those that are of clinical significance in the treatment of chronic diseases, including standard risk factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose, and clinical outcomes such as hospitalizations, functional limitations, excess morbidity, quality of life, and mortality. This link between behavior and chronic disease requires innovative clinical trial methods not only from the behavioral sciences but also from medicine, epidemiology, and biostatistics. This integration does not exist in any current book, or in any training program, in either the behavioral sciences or medicine.

The brand-new third edition of the Manual for Clinical Trials Nursing provides a more comprehensive guide for clinical trials nurses of all levels of experience and practice settings. With expanded content and reorganized chapters to facilitate location of desired content, the book covers topics ranging from history and fundamental information through protocol development and financial factors, recruitment and retention, clinical trial participants, and genetics and genomics to correlative trials, quality assurance, professional development, and international research efforts. Since clinical trials research is dynamic, the new edition directs the reader to pertinent websites where the most current information is available. -- Provided by publisher.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of healthy volunteers and patients worldwide undertake the journey through the maze that can be clinical trials. Research participants take part in clinical trials for a variety of reasons. The healthy volunteers may be seeking extra money to pay off college tuition, or they may know someone who is suffering and would potentially benefit from the results of the trial. The patient who is terminally ill might participate in a clinical trial simply as a last hope for a cure. Whatever the goals, though, most participants will experience the same sense of bewilderment as they encounter the jargon and medical terminology that they will hear and have to read about and understand during the course of the clinical trial. Clinical Trials: What Patients and Volunteers Need to Know demystifies the entire process, focusing on the process of drug development, and the clinical trial itself. Writing from a lifetime of experience, the author provides important questions to ask those running a clinical trial, key definitions and terms for a participant to know and understand, as well as anecdotes illustrating the clinical trial process. The author also grapples with the idea of "informed consent," providing mechanisms for patients and volunteers to feel fully informed before signing up for the trial. A vital resource for those who are considering enrolling in a clinical trial, or for the parents, friends, or relatives of those involved in a clinical trial, this book takes away the mystery and allows the participant to enter a clinical trial feeling both informed and confident.

Clinical trials are the engine of progress in the development of new drugs and devices for the detection, monitoring, prevention and treatment of cancer. A well conceived, carefully designed and efficiently conducted clinical trial can produce results that change clinical practice overnight, deliver new oncology drugs and diagnostics to the marketplace, and expand the horizon of contemporary thinking about cancer biology. A poorly done trial does little to advance the field or guide clinical practice, consumes precious clinical and financial resources and challenges the validity of the ethical contract between investigators and the volunteers who willingly give their time and effort to benefit future patients. With chapters written by oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives, Oncology Clinical Trials, provides a comprehensive guide for both early-career and senior oncology investigators into the successful design, conduct and analysis of an oncology clinical trial. Oncology Clinical Trials covers how to formulate a study question, selecting a study population, study design of Phase I, II, and III trials, toxicity monitoring, data analysis and reporting, use of genomics, cost-effectiveness analysis, systemic review and meta-analysis, and many other issues. Many examples of real-life flaws in clinical trials that have been reported in the literature are included throughout. The book discusses clinical trials from start to finish focusing on real-life examples in the development, design and analysis of clinical trials. Oncology Clinical Trials features: A systematic guide to all aspects of the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of clinical trials in oncology Contributions from oncologists, researchers, biostatisticians, clinical research administrators, and industry and FDA representatives Hot topics in oncology trials including multi-arm trials, meta-analysis and adaptive design, use of genomics, and cost-effectiveness analysis Real-life examples from reported clinical trials included throughout