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STATISTICS AND MEDICINE Previous Volume 354:1667-1669 April 20, 2006 Number 16 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Subgroup analyses are an important part of the analysis of a comparative clinical trial. However, they are commonly overinterpreted^1,2,3,4 and can lead to further research that is misguided or, worse, to suboptimal patient care.

Consider a randomized, clinical trial designed to determine whether a new treatment is more effective than an established treatment and assessed with a test, based on all randomized patients, of the null hypothesis that the treatments have equal efficacy, as measured in terms of the primary end point. Then, subgroup analyses are conducted to assess whether different types of patients respond differently to the new treatment. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Dr. Lagakos is a professor of biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and a statistical consultant to the Journal.

Related Letters:

The Challenge of Subgroup Analyses
Eisner M. D., Lagakos S. W.
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N Engl J Med 2006; 355:211-212, Jul 13, 2006. Correspondence

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