On improving the min test for the analysis of combination drug trials

Abstract

In the analysis of clinical trials of combination therapies, the min test is often used to demonstrate a combination therapy's superiority to its components. Although uniformly most powerful within a class of monotone tests, this test is excessively conservative with low power at certain alternatives. This paperdemonstrates that more powerful tests may be found outside of this class. Some such alternative tests are suggested and compared with the min tests on the basis of their actual significance levels and powers. The proposed tests are observed to be less conservative and uniformly more powerful than the min test.

Keywords:

• Combination Therapy
• Improving Min Test