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  "path": "/t/estimand-when-treatment-delays-disease-onset/28654#post_3",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-04T21:41:18.000Z",
  "site": "https://discourse.datamethods.org",
  "textContent": "I didn’t want to bring many clinical details because didn’t want to focus the estimand question to this disease specifically, but sure:\n\nCDI has been historically treated with vancomycin for 10-14 days. A recent RCT showed that a newer drug, fidaxomicin, had less CDI recurrence (new-onset CDI after the original treatment time). However, the key point here is that fidaxomicin RCT showed better results ending the follow-up at ~38 days.\n\nThen this newer RCT, that did not test fidamoxin but instead a taper dosage of vancomycin, ALSO showed better results of taper vanco at 38 days, but no difference later on!\n\nDoes fidaxomicin reduce CDI recurrence or just delays it, like taper vanco? No one knows.\n\nNevertheless, I want to explore this type of clinical scenario where a treatment doesn’t eliminate a person’s risk to a disease, but instead seems to delays its onset.\n\nIs it a fail?",
  "title": "Estimand when treatment delays disease onset"
}