Rolling continual reassessment method with overdose control: An efficient and safe dose escalation design.

In phase 1 dose escalation studies, dose limiting toxicities (DLTs) are defined as adverse events of concern occurring during a predefined time window after first dosing of patients. Standard dose escalation designs, such as the continual reassessment method (CRM), only utilize this binary DLT information. Thus, late-onset DLTs are usually not accounted for when CRM guiding the dose escalation and finally defining the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of the drug, which brings safety concerns for patients.

Bayesian adaptive dose-escalation designs for simultaneously estimating the optimal and maximum safe dose based on safety and efficacy.

The main purpose of dose-escalation trials is to identify the dose(s) that is/are safe and efficacious for further investigations in later studies. In this paper, we introduce dose-escalation designs that incorporate both the dose-limiting events and dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) and indicative responses of efficacy into the procedure. A flexible nonparametric model is used for modelling the continuous efficacy responses while a logistic model is used for the binary DLTs.

Objective Bayesian model selection for Cox regression.

There is now a large literature on objective Bayesian model selection in the linear model based on the g-prior. The methodology has been recently extended to generalized linear models using test-based Bayes factors. In this paper, we show that test-based Bayes factors can also be applied to the Cox proportional hazards model.

Reduction of thromboembolic events in meningioma surgery: a cohort study of 724 consecutive patients.

Background: Meningiomas are associated with the highest postoperative rate of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) among all intracranial tumors. The aim of this study is to compare two entirely different VTE prophylaxis regimens in 724 consecutive patients undergoing meningioma surgery.

Methods: Two cohorts at a single institution treated with different regimens to prevent VTE were reviewed retrospectively.

Validating and updating a risk model for pneumonia - a case study.

Background: The development of risk prediction models is of increasing importance in medical research - their use in practice, however, is rare. Among other reasons this might be due to the fact that thorough validation is often lacking. This study focuses on two Bayesian approaches of how to validate a prediction rule for the diagnosis of pneumonia, and compares them with established validation methods.

Sensitization to common ragweed in southern Bavaria: clinical and geographical risk factors in atopic patients.

Background: Sensitization to common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) is associated with a variety of risk factors, which are incompletely defined. Our aim was to evaluate the association of a variety of clinical, geographical and demographical variables with ragweed sensitization and also to determine its frequency in southern Bavaria.

Methods: In this cross-sectional multicentre study, we enrolled 977 patients with a documented or suspected atopic disease or food allergy.

Pilot study on HTR2A promoter polymorphism, -1438G/A (rs6311) and a nearby copy number variation showed association with onset and severity in early onset obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A previous study showed that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), -1438G/A (rs6311), found in the transcriptional control region of the gene that encodes the serotonin-receptor 2A (HTR2A) was associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a sample of children and adolescents. In this study, we reanalyzed the association of this SNP with OCD in an enlarged population of 136 cases (55 previous + 81 new cases) and compared them to 106 newly recruited, healthy, age-matched controls. We also investigated whether this SNP or its copy number variations (CNV) was associated with OCD severity and age of onset.