{"title":"A novel longitudinal rank-sum test for multiple primary endpoints in clinical trials: Applications to neurodegenerative disorders.","authors":"Xiaoming Xu, Dhrubajyoti Ghosh, Sheng Luo","doi":"10.1080/19466315.2025.2458018","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) present a significant global health challenge, characterized by cognitive decline, functional impairment, and other debilitating effects. Current AD clinical trials often assess multiple longitudinal primary endpoints to comprehensively evaluate treatment efficacy. Traditional methods, however, may fail to capture global treatment effects, require larger sample sizes due to multiplicity adjustments, and may not fully utilize the available longitudinal data. To address these limitations, we introduce the Longitudinal Rank Sum Test (LRST), a novel nonparametric rank-based omnibus test statistic. The LRST enables a comprehensive assessment of treatment efficacy across multiple endpoints and time points without the need for multiplicity adjustments, effectively controlling Type I error while enhancing statistical power. It offers flexibility for various data distributions encountered in AD research and maximizes the utilization of longitudinal data. Simulations across realistic clinical trial scenarios, including those with conflicting treatment effects, and real-data applications demonstrate the LRST's performance, underscoring its potential as a valuable tool in AD clinical trials.</p>","PeriodicalId":51280,"journal":{"name":"Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12352412/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19466315.2025.2458018","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"MATHEMATICAL & COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) present a significant global health challenge, characterized by cognitive decline, functional impairment, and other debilitating effects. Current AD clinical trials often assess multiple longitudinal primary endpoints to comprehensively evaluate treatment efficacy. Traditional methods, however, may fail to capture global treatment effects, require larger sample sizes due to multiplicity adjustments, and may not fully utilize the available longitudinal data. To address these limitations, we introduce the Longitudinal Rank Sum Test (LRST), a novel nonparametric rank-based omnibus test statistic. The LRST enables a comprehensive assessment of treatment efficacy across multiple endpoints and time points without the need for multiplicity adjustments, effectively controlling Type I error while enhancing statistical power. It offers flexibility for various data distributions encountered in AD research and maximizes the utilization of longitudinal data. Simulations across realistic clinical trial scenarios, including those with conflicting treatment effects, and real-data applications demonstrate the LRST's performance, underscoring its potential as a valuable tool in AD clinical trials.
期刊介绍:
Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research ( SBR), publishes articles that focus on the needs of researchers and applied statisticians in biopharmaceutical industries; academic biostatisticians from schools of medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, and pharmacy; statisticians and quantitative analysts working in regulatory agencies (e.g., U.S. Food and Drug Administration and its counterpart in other countries); statisticians with an interest in adopting methodology presented in this journal to their own fields; and nonstatisticians with an interest in applying statistical methods to biopharmaceutical problems.
Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research accepts papers that discuss appropriate statistical methodology and information regarding the use of statistics in all phases of research, development, and practice in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, device, and diagnostics industries. Articles should focus on the development of novel statistical methods, novel applications of current methods, or the innovative application of statistical principles that can be used by statistical practitioners in these disciplines. Areas of application may include statistical methods for drug discovery, including papers that address issues of multiplicity, sequential trials, adaptive designs, etc.; preclinical and clinical studies; genomics and proteomics; bioassay; biomarkers and surrogate markers; models and analyses of drug history, including pharmacoeconomics, product life cycle, detection of adverse events in clinical studies, and postmarketing risk assessment; regulatory guidelines, including issues of standardization of terminology (e.g., CDISC), tolerance and specification limits related to pharmaceutical practice, and novel methods of drug approval; and detection of adverse events in clinical and toxicological studies. Tutorial articles also are welcome. Articles should include demonstrable evidence of the usefulness of this methodology (presumably by means of an application).
The Editorial Board of SBR intends to ensure that the journal continually provides important, useful, and timely information. To accomplish this, the board strives to attract outstanding articles by seeing that each submission receives a careful, thorough, and prompt review.
Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal.