STAT 509 Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials

Fall 20143 Semester

Co-Instructors

Tonya Sharp King, PhD

Professor

Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

Department of Public Health Sciences, A210

Penn State College of Medicine

600 Centerview Drive, Suite 2200

Hershey, PA 17033-0855

Email:

Rebecca Antle Lengerich, M. A.

Senior Instructor

Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics

Department of Public Health Sciences, A210

Penn State College of Medicine

600 Centerview Drive, Suite 2200

Hershey, PA 17033-0855

Email:

To contact instructors: Use ANGEL email system(check “send copy to internet email” as well).

Course Description

Stat 509This is a survey course that stresses the concepts of statistical design and analysis in biomedical research, with special emphasis on clinical trials. SAS for Windows statistical software will be used throughout the course for data analysis.Penn State offers three opportunities to take a course in Design and Analysis of Clinical Trials: Stat 509 at the University Park campus, Stat 509 through World Campus and PHS 580 at the Hershey campus. The instructional materials and requirements for World Campus Stat 509 are similar to those of Stat 509 at University Park and PHS 580 at Hershey, adapted for online instruction. Dr. Vern Chinchilli was the original course author for Stat 509.

There is also a resident course at Penn State Hershey with emphasis on survival methods, group sequential designs and analysis of longitudinal data: PHS 597D Advanced Biostatistical Methods in Clinical Trials.

Course Prerequisites

STAT 500, STAT 501, HES/PHS 520, or an equivalent introductory statistics course. Prior knowledge of SAS is not required, but students should have some familiarity with operating a PC in a Windows environment.

Required Course Materials

In order to take this course, you need:

  • access to a Windows PC that has internet access, SAS, and Microsoft Word
  • you can purchase your own copy ofSAS 9.3 Windows Student License & Media through Penn State's Computer Store for $30. You will need to have your 9 digit PSU ID number handy when you make this order.

A Note to MAC users. You could attempt to use a MAC computer and Virtual PC software to run SAS. However, SAS does not guarantee the outcome. You are, therefore, strongly discouraged from using anything but a Windows PC for this course.

Recommended Text Books

The majority of the material on the design and analysis of clinical trials is taken from:

Piantadosi S. (2005). Clinical Trials: A Methodologic Perspective, Second Edition. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Additional material on the analysis of clinical trials is taken from

Woolson RF, Clarke WR. (2002). Statistical Methods for the Analysis of Biomedical Data, Second Edition. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Learning Assessment Plan

5 Homework Assignments (4 at 20 points; final homework 40 points) ; Your final grade will be based on points earned/total course points.

Students are expected to submit assignments by 2:30 pm on the date due.

If you experience a crisis that severely compromises your ability to submit your work on-time, contact Ms. Lengerich prior to the due date to appeal for an extension. Otherwise, work submitted one day late will receive half credit; work beyond one day late will not receive credit.

SAS:

SAS technical support:

Stat software requirements and system requirements are here: onlinecourses.science.psu.edu/statprogram/node/4

and onlinecourses.science.psu.edu/statprogram/node/3

SAS EG gives nice output and is more like Excel or Minitab with drop-downs under the Tasks tab. However, the examples in this course provide programs that you can generally cut and paste into the program screen for SAS EG or the Program Editor for SAS 9.2 and then modify as needed to solve a homework problem.You will have examples of data entered in the program itself.

Once a program is written, click the figure of the person 'running' or the tab 'run' to submit the program and view the output. In SAS 9.3, you can save output to a file if you are in the output window by clicking on the 'file' tab and 'save as'. If the program isn't working, you will want to see the log window. The 'window' tab allows you to select the program editor, output or log or graph windows (or tiling or cascading all 3). You can toggle between the screens you wish to view.

In SAS EG, I can also paste a sample program in the program tab, modify, run (tab), look at results and create (tab) a report which can be exported (another tab..means you save the report)

Once SAS is installed, for SAS coding problems...

1. Check for missing semicolons, check the log to see where it went bad. Use the Help tab in SAS and check out examples for the PROC you using, also re-check examples in the course notes.

2. We expect your homework submissions to be in your own words, representing individual work. You may however discussion SAS coding problems with other students and email the instructors if needed. I will also post a discussion space when homework is assigned which you may use to post a SAS question or question on the assignment…nights and weekends a fellow student may be quicker to see your post than the instructor and provide an answer.

Tentative Course Schedule

Topics / Assignments / Completed by / Points
Week 1
Aug 267 / Clinical Trials as Research, Contexts for Clinical Trials
(Ch 2 and 4) / Discussion Question Set 1: Who am I and why am I here?
Would you participate in a clinical trial? / In class
Week 2
Sept 23 / Ethics, Clinical Trial Design (Ch 6) / Discussion Question 2 / In class
Week 3
Sept 910 / Random Error and Bias, Objectives and Outcomes (Ch 7-8) / Discussion Question 3 / In class
Week 4
Sept 167 / Translational Clinical Trials, Dose-Finding Designs (Ch 9-10) / Discussion Question 4 / In class
Week 5
Sept 234 / Sample Size and Power (A) (Ch 11) / Homework 1 / 10/710/7 2:30 pm / 20
Week 6
Oct 19/30 / Sample Size and Power: Non-inferiority and Equivalence Trials; Study Cohort (Ch 12) / (Homework 1)
Week 7
Oct 78 / Treatment Allocation; Counting Subjectsand Events
(Ch 13 and 15) / Discussion Question 5; SAS program / In class
Week 8
Oct 145 / Treatment Effects Monitoring; Safety Monitoring (Ch 14) / Discussion Question 6
Homework 2 / In class
10/278 2:30 pm / 20
Week 9
Oct 212 / Estimating Clinical Effects (Ch 16) / SAS programs
Week 10
Oct 289 / Prognostic Factor Analyses (Ch 17) / Homework 3
SAS programs; / 11/101 2:30 pm
In class / 20
Week 11
Nov45 / Reporting and Authorship; Factorial Design (Ch 18-19) / Review factorial study; SAS program / In class
Week 12
Nov 112 / Crossover Design (Ch 20) / Homework 4 / 11/2552:30 pm / 20
Week 13
Nov 189 / Meta-analysis (Ch 21) / Homework 5
SAS example / 12/92:30 pmNOON
In class / 40
Nov 256 / No class…Give thanks!
Week 14
Dec 23 / Medical Diagnostic Testing; Correlation and Agreement(Ch 22 -23) / (Homework 5)
SAS examples
Week 15
Dec 190 / Homework 5 review / 120 total

Academic Integrity Policy

Please review Penn State's tutorial on plagiarism and academic dishonesty.

All Penn State policies regarding ethics and honorable behavior apply to this course. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution. All University policies regarding academic integrity apply to this course. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.

For any material or ideas obtained from other sources, such as the text or things you see on the web, in the library, etc., a source reference must be given. Direct quotes from any source must be identified as such.

All exam answers must be your own, and you must not provide any assistance to other students during exams. Any instances of academic dishonesty WILL be pursued under the University and Eberly College of Science regulations concerning academic integrity.

Disabilities

It is Penn State's policy not to discriminate against qualified students with documented disabilities in its educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for modifications in this course, contact your instructor and the Office for Disability Services (located in 116 Boucke Building). Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible. You may refer to the Nondiscrimination Policy in the Student Guide to University Policies and Rules 1997. See the website for details.