Sometimes I wonder, in the world of medicinal research when treating cancer is concern, which endpoint is more important?
Progression Free Survival (PFS) means how long can a patient survive without the cancer getting worst. Overall survival (OS) means how long can a patient survive before the patient dies of the cancer, or dies of disease complications.
I've come about this issues quite many times, when the professionals often asked, "Do you think your drug works, when it only shows a fairly good enough PFS but not OS?". Ultimately we are talking about prolonging the lives of the patient.
Yes I agree. Ultimately we are talking about prolonging the lives of cancer patients. To me I guess both endpoints are appropriate, and whether PFS is better or OS, I guess it is also depending on the prognosis of the disease type itself.
For example, a patient is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, which comparatively have a better life span as compared to a patient who is diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. For cases where patients can potentially live longer with the disease, PFS is more important to testify the efficacy of the drug, because chances are, patients would have many lines of treatment in the future.
How long a patient can survive is no longer just confined to one type of treatment, or one type of drugs. With the advancement in oncology, patients are now able to live longer with better drugs, and live longer to undergo many lines of treatment, and thus overall survival may not be relevant to see how effective is a particular drug.
But for disease which progresses very rapidly, OS is a good endpoint because chances of patients living long enough for many lines of treatment are low, and thus OS is a good indicator of how effective is the drug given.
I am not a professional to say whether what I said is absolutely correct or wrong. But to certain extent, when a patient comes to a see a doctor with advanced diseases, we know that prolonging survival is ideal, but providing a better quality of life to the patient is also of ultimate importance. And I believe, my drug can certainly achieve this.
Pray for all the surviving patients out there, and hope one day more patients can get access to good drugs. =)
Progression Free Survival (PFS) means how long can a patient survive without the cancer getting worst. Overall survival (OS) means how long can a patient survive before the patient dies of the cancer, or dies of disease complications.
I've come about this issues quite many times, when the professionals often asked, "Do you think your drug works, when it only shows a fairly good enough PFS but not OS?". Ultimately we are talking about prolonging the lives of the patient.
Yes I agree. Ultimately we are talking about prolonging the lives of cancer patients. To me I guess both endpoints are appropriate, and whether PFS is better or OS, I guess it is also depending on the prognosis of the disease type itself.
For example, a patient is diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, which comparatively have a better life span as compared to a patient who is diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. For cases where patients can potentially live longer with the disease, PFS is more important to testify the efficacy of the drug, because chances are, patients would have many lines of treatment in the future.
How long a patient can survive is no longer just confined to one type of treatment, or one type of drugs. With the advancement in oncology, patients are now able to live longer with better drugs, and live longer to undergo many lines of treatment, and thus overall survival may not be relevant to see how effective is a particular drug.
But for disease which progresses very rapidly, OS is a good endpoint because chances of patients living long enough for many lines of treatment are low, and thus OS is a good indicator of how effective is the drug given.
I am not a professional to say whether what I said is absolutely correct or wrong. But to certain extent, when a patient comes to a see a doctor with advanced diseases, we know that prolonging survival is ideal, but providing a better quality of life to the patient is also of ultimate importance. And I believe, my drug can certainly achieve this.
Pray for all the surviving patients out there, and hope one day more patients can get access to good drugs. =)
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