Multilevel network meta-regression for multistate models: Population-adjusted joint synthesis of progression and survival data from individual and aggregate evidence

Jeroen P Jansen

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arXiv · 2607.25120

Multilevel network meta-regression for multistate models: Population-adjusted joint synthesis of progression and survival data from individual and aggregate evidence

Jeroen P Jansen

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Abstract

In network meta-analysis (NMA) of oncology time-to-event outcomes, there is growing recognition that progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) are better synthesized jointly than in separate analyses. The multistate NMA of Jansen et al. addresses this with a tri-state (stable, progressed, dead) Markov model fitted to aggregate survival curves, but it cannot adjust for imbalance in effect-modifying covariates across trials, so its relative effects may be biased or not relevant for the target population of interest. Multilevel network meta-regression (ML-NMR) resolves covariate imbalance by integrating an individual-level model over the aggregate covariate distribution, coherently combining individual participant data (IPD) and aggregate data (AgD); however, it has been developed only for single-endpoint outcomes. This paper introduces multilevel network meta-regression for multistate models (ML-NMR-MS), which embeds the ML-NMR integrated IPD-plus-AgD likelihood inside an illness--death multistate model. For IPD studies the full multistate likelihood over linked transitions is used; for AgD studies covariate-marginal state-occupancy probabilities are computed by quasi-Monte-Carlo integration of the occupancies implied by the transition intensities over the reconstructed covariate distribution, and entered through a conditional-survival likelihood. This yields population-adjusted joint PFS/OS treatment effects and can directly parameterize a state-transition economic model. On an illustrative oncology network, ML-NMR-MS resolves a treatment's joint effect into its component transitions, separating an effect on progression from an effect on post-progression survival, and produces conditional and marginal effects. A simulation study with fully known truth confirms unbiased recovery and near-nominal coverage under correct specification.

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Jeroen P Jansen. 2026-07-30. Multilevel network meta-regression for multistate models: Population-adjusted joint synthesis of progression and survival data from individual and aggregate evidence. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25120

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