Summary of some key features of rule-based and model-based designs1
| Rule-based designs | Model-based designs | |
| Target dose-limiting toxicity rate | Unclear | Clearly defined and can be flexibly chosen |
| Patients treated at the optimal dose | (Relatively) few | (Relatively) many |
| Patients treated at subtherapeutic doses | (Relatively) many | (Relatively) few |
| Utilisation of available data | Poor | Efficient |
| Extension to more complex questions | Difficult and dubious | Smooth and straightforward |
| Deviations from the plan (eg, other doses, different number of patients on a dose) | Hard or impossible to incorporate | Easily accommodated |