Standardized statistical framework for comparison of biomarkers: Techniques from ADNI

INTRODUCTION Well‐chosen biomarkers have the potential to increase the efficiency of clinical trials and drug discovery and should show good precision as well as clinical validity. METHODS We suggest measures that operationalize these criteria and describe a general approach that can be used for inference‐based comparisons of biomarker performance. The methods are applied to measures obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from individuals with mild dementia (n = 70) or mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 303) enrolled in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. RESULTS Ventricular volume and hippocampal volume showed the best precision in detecting change over time in both individuals with MCI and with dementia. Differences in clinical validity varied by group. DISCUSSION The methodology presented provides a standardized framework for comparison of biomarkers across modalities and across different methods used to generate similar measures and will help in the search for the most promising biomarkers. Highlights A framework for comparison of biomarkers on pre‐defined criteria is presented. Criteria for comparison include precision in capturing change and clinical validity. Ventricular volume has high precision in change for both dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) trials. Imaging measures’ performance in clinical validity varies more for dementia than for MCI.