MINIREVIEW Hazard Ratio in Clinical Trials

Time-to-event curves analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression are commonly used to describe the outcome of drug studies. This methodology has the advantage of using all avail-able information, including patients who fail to complete the trial, such as in cancer chemotherapy or human immunodefi-ciency virus antiviral treatment studies. The goal of treatment in such studies may be to prevent the development of a com-plication, for example, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and to describe the likelihood of this complication’s developing in the treatment group compared to the control group. The hazard ratio describes the relative risk of the complication based on comparison of event rates. Hazard ratios have also been used to describe the outcome of therapeutic trials where the question is to what extent treat-ment can shorten the duration of the illness. However, th