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Reader reaction to “A robust method for estimating optimal treatment regimes” by Zhang et al. (2012). (English) Zbl 1329.62438

Summary: A recent article [B. Zhang et al., Biometrics 68, No. 4, 1010–1018 (2012; Zbl 1258.62116)] compares regression based and inverse probability based methods of estimating an optimal treatment regime and shows for a small number of covariates that inverse probability weighted methods are more robust to model misspecification than regression methods. We demonstrate that using models that fit the data better reduces the concern about non-robustness for the regression methods. We extend the simulation study of Zhang et al. [loc. cit.], also considering the situation of a larger number of covariates, and show that incorporating random forests into both regression and inverse probability weighted based methods improves their properties.

MSC:

62P10 Applications of statistics to biology and medical sciences; meta analysis

Citations:

Zbl 1258.62116
Full Text: DOI

References:

[1] Foster, J. C., Taylor, J. M. G., and Ruberg, S. J. (2011). Subgroup identification from randomized clinical trial data. Statistics in Medicine30, 2867-2880.
[2] Zhang, B., Tsiatis, A. A., Laber, E. B., and Davidian, M. (2012). A robust method for estimating optimal treatment regimes. Biometrics168, 1010-1018. · Zbl 1258.62116
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