Making Patient-Specific Treatment Decisions Using Prognostic Variables and Utilities of Clinical Outcomes
We argue that well-informed patient-specific decision-making may be carried out as three consecutive tasks: (1) estimating key parameters of a statistical model, (2) using prognostic information to convert these parameters into clinically interpretable values, and (3) specifying joint utility functi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Cancers |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/13/11/2741 |
| Summary: | We argue that well-informed patient-specific decision-making may be carried out as three consecutive tasks: (1) estimating key parameters of a statistical model, (2) using prognostic information to convert these parameters into clinically interpretable values, and (3) specifying joint utility functions to quantify risk–benefit trade-offs between clinical outcomes. Using the management of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma as our motivating example, we explain the role of prognostic covariates that characterize between-patient heterogeneity in clinical outcomes. We show that explicitly specifying the joint utility of clinical outcomes provides a coherent basis for patient-specific decision-making. |
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| ISSN: | 2072-6694 |