Clinical End Points and Relevant Clinical Benefits in Advanced Colorectal Cancer Trials

Discussion of which variable represents the benefits derived from the adoption of a new treatment in a more reliable manner is of vital importance, both for the design of future clinical trials and for the interpretation of their results, and also to transfer them satisfactorily into clinical practice. Overall survival remains the end point which reflects the clinical benefit most clearly, followed by quality of life and patients’ reported outcomes. However, it may not always be feasible to choose overall survival as the primary end point. Must progression-free survival or other surrogate end points replace overall survival in some settings? In this review we highlight the flaws of the end points used in clinical trials and in the setting of advanced colorectal cancer. We also review the results of all recently reported randomized trials in the field, with a critical discussion of their clinical relevance and final recommendations to optimize the design of clinical trials.
Source: Current Colorectal Cancer Reports - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research