[R] Multiple endpoint (possibly group sequential) sample size calculation

Paul Miller pjmiller_57 at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 4 21:03:50 CEST 2011


Hello everyone,

I need to do a sample size calculation. The study two arms and two endpoints. The two arms are two different cancer drugs and the two endpoints reflect efficacy (based on progression free survival) and toxicity. 

Until now, I have been trying to understand this in terms of a one-arm design, where the acceptable rate of efficacy might be 0.40, the unacceptable rate of efficacy might be 0.20, the acceptable rate of non-toxicity might be 0.85, and the unacceptable rate of non-toxicity might be 0.65. Then one would pick an alpha for the probability of accepting a poor response, an alpha for the probability of accepting a toxic drug, and a beta for the probability of rejecting a good drug.

I'm not really sure how that sort of thinking translates into a two-arm design though.

Ideally, I'd like the calculation to be based on a group sequential design with two stages, but that's certainly not necessary, and I'd be very happy to learn how to do things both with and without this extra element.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul



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