Statistical Inference of the Class of Nonparametric Tests for the Panel Count and Current Status Data from the Perspective of the Saddlepoint Approximation

Abstract

Many statisticians resort to using the asymptotic normal approximation method to carry out statistical inference for many statistical tests, especially nonparametric ones. In this article, the saddlepoint approximation method is proposed as an alternative to the asymptotic normal approximation method to carry out statistical inference for a number of nonparametric tests for an important type of data that appears frequently in many clinical studies such as cancer and tumorigenicity studies. In clinical trials, there are many strategies through which treatments are assigned to patients. Equal allocation of both treatments is a largely prevalent approach in clinical trials to eliminate experimental bias and increase power. Accordingly, the statistical analysis is carried out based on the truncated binomial design, which is one of the designs that achieve a perfect balance between the two treatments. To clarify the accuracy of the proposed approximation method, two sets of real data are analyzed, and for the same purpose, a comprehensive simulation study is carried out.