Abstract |
The purpose of this analysis was to examine the efficacy of prophylactic hematopoietic colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) in pediatric cancer and to describe how a Bayesian meta-analysis can be conducted and then modified to incorporate information not readily included in a frequentist meta-analysis. Three Bayesian models were developed. The simplest model used the same data as a published frequentist meta-analysis. The second model included data that could not easily be incorporated into the frequentist meta-analysis, including data from different courses of chemotherapy and continuous outcomes that did not report variance estimates. The third model examined the effect of CSF type (granulocyte CSF vs. granulocyte-macrophage CSF). Compared with the frequentist model, the Bayesian model with the most data suggested a greater benefit of CSFs, with a 3.2-day reduction in duration of parenteral antibiotics (95% credible interval: -7.1, 0.7) in the expanded Bayesian model compared with a 0.8-day (95% confidence interval: -2.3, 0.7) reduction in the frequentist model. Bayesian meta-analysis also suggested that, compared with granulocyte-macrophage CSF, granulocyte CSF was associated with a 4.8-day decrease in the duration of parenteral antibiotics. Bayesian meta-analysis can readily include information not easily incorporated in a frequentist meta-analysis. Some treatment effect estimates were larger by a clinically important amount when additional data contributed to the pooled estimate.
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Authors | L Sung, J Beyene, J Hayden, P C Nathan, B Lange, G A Tomlinson |
Journal | American journal of epidemiology
(Am J Epidemiol)
Vol. 163
Issue 9
Pg. 811-7
(May 01 2006)
ISSN: 0002-9262 [Print] United States |
PMID | 16554346
(Publication Type: Journal Article, Meta-Analysis)
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Chemical References |
- Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor
- Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor
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Topics |
- Bayes Theorem
- Child
- Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor
(therapeutic use)
- Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor
(therapeutic use)
- Humans
- Neoplasms
(prevention & control)
- Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
- Treatment Outcome
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