TWICEBEE: A Two-stage Intra-patient Curve-free Bayesian Decision-Theoretic Dose Escalation Design

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bi, Dehua, Good, Zina, Ryan, Katherine, Heitzeneder, Sabine, Tamaresis, John S., Lowskey, Robert, Monje, Michelle, Mackall, Crystal, Lu, Ying
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Bi, Dehua
Good, Zina
Ryan, Katherine
Heitzeneder, Sabine
Tamaresis, John S.
Lowskey, Robert
Monje, Michelle
Mackall, Crystal
Lu, Ying
author_facet Bi, Dehua
Good, Zina
Ryan, Katherine
Heitzeneder, Sabine
Tamaresis, John S.
Lowskey, Robert
Monje, Michelle
Mackall, Crystal
Lu, Ying
contents We propose a novel Phase I intra-patient dose-escalation design tailored for multi-cycle immunotherapy settings, in which toxicity at a fixed dose level is clinically expected to decrease over successive treatment cycles. This design was motivated by a phase I trial of CAR T cell therapy, an emerging cellular immunotherapy with established applications in cancer and growing investigation in autoimmune disease. The design is intended for settings in which nonincreasing cycle-specific toxicity assumption is clinically justified. Specifically, we build on the extrapolation property of the modified curve-free Bayesian decision-theoretic (c-CFBD) design for two-agent trials (Xu, et al. 2025), treating treatment cycle as a second dimension. By redefining the partial order, the c-CFBD framework can accommodate the reduction in toxicity across cycles. The proposed design adopts a two-stage structure: an initial accelerated titration stage to rapidly explore dose levels, followed by a c-CFBD stage to improve safety and estimate the cycle-specific maximum tolerated dose sequence. Simulation studies across a range of scenarios demonstrate favorable operating characteristics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26272
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle TWICEBEE: A Two-stage Intra-patient Curve-free Bayesian Decision-Theoretic Dose Escalation Design
Bi, Dehua
Good, Zina
Ryan, Katherine
Heitzeneder, Sabine
Tamaresis, John S.
Lowskey, Robert
Monje, Michelle
Mackall, Crystal
Lu, Ying
Methodology
We propose a novel Phase I intra-patient dose-escalation design tailored for multi-cycle immunotherapy settings, in which toxicity at a fixed dose level is clinically expected to decrease over successive treatment cycles. This design was motivated by a phase I trial of CAR T cell therapy, an emerging cellular immunotherapy with established applications in cancer and growing investigation in autoimmune disease. The design is intended for settings in which nonincreasing cycle-specific toxicity assumption is clinically justified. Specifically, we build on the extrapolation property of the modified curve-free Bayesian decision-theoretic (c-CFBD) design for two-agent trials (Xu, et al. 2025), treating treatment cycle as a second dimension. By redefining the partial order, the c-CFBD framework can accommodate the reduction in toxicity across cycles. The proposed design adopts a two-stage structure: an initial accelerated titration stage to rapidly explore dose levels, followed by a c-CFBD stage to improve safety and estimate the cycle-specific maximum tolerated dose sequence. Simulation studies across a range of scenarios demonstrate favorable operating characteristics.
title TWICEBEE: A Two-stage Intra-patient Curve-free Bayesian Decision-Theoretic Dose Escalation Design
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26272