Weighted Lin and Xu test for two-stage randomization designs

Abstract

The focus on two-stage randomization designs with survival end points is on estimating and comparing survival distributions for the different treatment policies. The objective is to identify the treatment policy which prolongs survival. In this paper, a method for comparing two treatment policies is proposed. These treatment policies may be shared path or independent path treatment policies. Simulation studies are performed to evaluate the performance of the new approach. The simulation studies reveal that the new method has better statistical power in cases where the survival curves cross. The new method is applied to a clinical trial dataset for leukemia.