--- title: "pscDesign" author: "Richard Jackson" date: "`r Sys.Date()`" output: rmarkdown::html_vignette vignette: > %\VignetteIndexEntry{psc-vignette} %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ```{r, include = FALSE} knitr::opts_chunk$set( collapse = TRUE, comment = "#>", fig.width = 7, fig.height= 5 ) ``` # pscDesign: A tool for Synthetically Controlled Trials pscDesign is a package which allows the design of prospective studies/trials using Personalised Synthetic Controls. The purpose of a fully synthetic trial is to recruit only patients to an experimental arm. Personalised synthetic controls here allow a patients observed response to be compared against their model estimated control. Details can be found here ("https://richjjackson.github.io/mecPortal/"). We present an example based in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma using a Counter Factual Model (CFM) generated on patients receivign Gemcitabine therapy. Full details on the model setting, construction, validation and interpretation are found [here](https://richjjackson.github.io/mecPortal//models/pdac_gem.html) ## Trial Design The overall design uses a Bayesian approach and uses a simulation study to estimate the study parameters. Evaluations of efficacy are based on the posterior distribution comparing the experimental regimen against the synthetically generated controls. Trial design also dependes on the ability to recruit patients, in this example we assume a study with 4 sites recruiting at an average rate of 0.88 patients/site/month and sites opening to recruitment at a rate of 1 per month. The pscDesign package includes a function [recForcast()] which allows for monthly recruitment estimates. ## 'Traditional' design comparisons As an illustration, we initially examine traditional randomised phase II trial designsetting a HR = 0.7, using an alpha level of 0.1 and power of 90% ### Randomised pahse II study design ``` gsdesign.survival(c(1),haz.ratio=0.7,r=1,sig.level=0.1,power=0.9,alternative="one.sided") Group sequential design for comparing survival data with hazard ratio = 0.7 Treatment allocated at 1:1 (C:E) ratio power family of boundary; 0 (Pocock) to 0.5 (O'Brien-Fleming) total number of events = 206.56 information fraction = 1 efficacy boundary = 1.282 (power = 0.5) sig.level = 0.1 power = 0.9 alternative = one.sided ``` ## Syntheticall Controlled Trial Design We now walk through the steps required to use the pscDesign function. To do this we make use of the gemCFM data ```{r, loadData} library(pscDesign) library(psc) gemCFM <- pscDesign::gemCFM ``` Before using the pscDesign() function to perform the simulation study, we first ensure the CFM is compatible by simulating a single dataset using the dataSim() function ```{r, singleFit} simData <- dataSim(gemCFM,n0=0,n1=500,beta=log(0.5),fuTime=12,recTime=24) psc.ex <- pscfit(gemCFM,simData) ``` We can evaluate the fit of this example using the summary and plot() functions ```{r, singleFitSumm} summary(psc.ex) plot(psc.ex) ``` ### Single Arm Trial Design We first demonstrate the impact of a single arm trial design. We design the study in 2-steps. Initially we provide a estimated monthly recruitment rate. #### recruitment forecast This is based on 4 sites recruiting at an average rate of 0.88 patients/site/month. Sites will themselves open at a rate of 1 site/month and a maximum recruitment time of 24 months is set. This gives a total sample size of 70 patients. ```{r, singleArmRec} N.site <- 4 rpm <- 0.88 open.rate <- 1 recTime <- 24 recF <- recForcast(N.site,rpm,open.rate,Max.Time=recTime) ``` #### Power estimates We run the pscDesign function using the 'rec=recF' option to include these recruitment estimates. Other parameters show we are interested in a ningle arm study (n=0) looking for a HR = 0.7 (beta=log(0.7)). We allow for a follow-up period of 12 months and in this example use only 10 simulations (you will want more but we keep this small to keep the processing speed down). We limit the pscfit function to use 750 MCMC iteration and allow the first 250 to act as a burn in. ```{r, singleArm,echo=T,results='hide'} pscDes_singArm <- pscDesign(CFM=gemCFM,n0=0,n1=70,beta=log(0.7),rec=recF, fuTime=12,nsim=10,nsim.psc=750,burn.psc=250, bound=0,direction="greater", alpha_eval=c(0.05,0.1,0.15,0.2)) ``` We view the results below showing the esitmated number of events, posterior mean and posterior standard deviation. Also given are the power estiamtes for a range of alpha levels. ```{r, singleArmRes} pscDes_singArm ``` ### Randomised Trial Design In a randomised trial design we extend the example to allow 30 patients onto the control arm as well as 70 on the experimental. #### recruitment forecast Given the extra patients required we extend recruitment by a period of 6 months. ```{r, randRec} N.site <- 4 rpm <- 0.88 open.rate <- 1 recTime <- 30 recF <- recForcast(N.site,rpm,open.rate,Max.Time=recTime) #100 patients over 30 months ``` We ammend the pscDesign() function allowing for control patients (n=30) ```{r, randArm,echo=T,results='hide'} pscDes_rand <- pscDesign(CFM=gemCFM,n0=30,n1=70,beta=log(0.7),rec=recF, fuTime=12,nsim=5,nsim.psc=750,burn.psc=250, bound=0,direction="greater", alpha_eval=c(0.05,0.1,0.15,0.2)) ``` The results of the design given below now include estimates of the efficacy parameter using Personalised Synthetic Controls, Direct Estimation (e.g. using only the information in the trial) and the 'posterior' estimate which combines these two efficacy estimates ```{r, randArmRes} pscDes_rand ```