Methods and Applications of Statistics in Clinical Trials, Volume 1: Concepts, Principles, Trials, and Designs

Preface

Planning, developing, and implementing clinical trials, have become an important and integral part of life. More and more efforts and care go into conducting various clinical trials as they have been responsible in making key advances in medicine and treatments to different illnesses. Today, clinical trials have become mandatory in the development and evaluation of modern drugs and in identifying the association of risk factors to diseases. Due to the complexity of various issues surrounding clinical trials, regulatory agencies oversee their approval and also ensure impartial review. The main purpose of this two-volume handbook is to provide a detailed exposition of historical developments and also to highlight modern advances on methods and analysis for clinical trials.

It is important to mention that the four-volume Wiley Encyclopedia of Clinical Trials served as a basis for this handbook. While many pertinent entries from this Encyclopedia have been included here, a number of them have been updated to reflect recent developments on their topics. Some new articles detailing modern advances in statistical methods in clinical trials and their applications have also been included.

A volume of this size and nature cannot be successfully completed without the co-operation and support of the contributing authors, and my sincere thanks and gratitude go to all of them. Thanks are also due to Mr. Steve Quigley and Ms. Sari Friedman (of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) for their keen interest ...