Minimum Size Survival Analysis Sampling Plans for Comparing Multiple Treatment Groups to a Single Control Group

Abstract

We develop a sample size methodology that achieves specified Type-1 and Type-2 error rates when comparing the survivor functions of multiple treatment groups versus a control group. The designs will control family-wise Type-1 error rate. We assume the family of Weibull distributions adequately describes the underlying survivor functions, and we separately consider three of the most common study scenarios: (a) complete samples; (b) Type-1 censoring with a common censoring time; and (c) Type-1 censoring with an accrual period. A mice longevity study comparing the effect on survival of multiple low-calorie diets is used to motivate our work on this problem.

Keywords:

• Survival analysis
• Weibull distribution
• Sample size
• Censored data
• Family-wise Type-1 error rate

Mathematics Subject Classification:

• 62N03