id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
cord-307426-fkzk8ubd	Su, Zheng	The Critical Role of Futility Analysis in the Pursuit of Effective Treatments for COVID-19	2020-06-09		.txt	text/plain	803	37	39	The potential to stop a trial or some of the treatment arms early for futility is critical in the pursuit of effective treatments for COVID-19. A registry analysis of hydroxychloroquine published on May 22, 2020 [6] , which was later retracted, prompted the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) of the RECOVERY trial to conduct an urgent review of the data on the effects of hydroxychloroquine on mortality among hospitalized patients with COVID-19. On June 4, 2020, the DMC conducted a further review of the data, which led to the conclusion of no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and the decision to stop enrolling patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial. The tradeoff between the cost of futility interim monitoring, which is a slight loss of study power, and allocating limited resources to more promising experimental treatments should be carefully considered by the study sponsor, the IRB and the DMC in the pursuit of safe and effective treatments for COVID-19.	./cache/cord-307426-fkzk8ubd.txt	./txt/cord-307426-fkzk8ubd.txt