Biomarker based clinical trial design

The established molecular heterogeneity of human cancers and the subsequent stratification of conventional diagnostic categories require the development of new paradigms for the development of a reliable basis for predictive medicine. We review clinical trial designs for the development of new therapeutics and predictive biomarkers to inform their use. We cover designs for a wide range of settings. At one extreme is the development of a new drug with a single biomarker and strong biological evidence that marker negative patients are unlikely to benefit from the new drug. At the other extreme are phase III clinical trials involving both genome-wide discovery and internal validation of a predictive classifier that identifies the patients most likely and unlikely to benefit from the new drug.