How informative is a negative finding in a small pharmacogenetic study?

Many pharmacogenetic studies fail to yield any statistically significant associations. Such negative findings may be due to the absence of, or inadequate statistical power to test for, an effect at the genetic variants tested. In many instances, sample sizes are small, making it unclear how to interpret the absence of statistically significant findings. We demonstrate that the amount of information that can be drawn from a negative study is improved by incorporating statistical power and the added context of well-validated pharmacogenetic effects into the interpretation process. This approach permits clearer inferences to be made about the possible range of genetic effects that may be present in, or are likely absent from, small drug studies. The Pharmacogenomics Journal (2012) 12, 93-95; doi: 10.1038/tpj.2011.58; published online 13 December 2011