Shushan Hovsepyan: Are we overestimating the true benefits of cancer drugs?
Shushan Hovsepyan, Editor-in-Chief of the OncoDaily Medical Journal, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent paper by Luca Locher et al. published in European Journal of Cancer:
“Are we overestimating the true benefits of cancer drugs?
Just was reading an interesting article questioning how we measure success in cancer drug trials, especially our reliance on progression-free survival (PFS) over overall survival (OS).
PFS vs. OS
PFS measures the time it takes for cancer to worsen, not how long patients actually live. Since PFS results are faster to measure, it’s often used to speed up cancer drug approvals.
But here’s the catch: PFS can make a drug look more effective at helping patients than it really is, often leading to an overestimation of its true impact.
Currently, simulation models are used to show the mechanisms behind this overestimation, and researchers have developed an open-access tool that allows users to explore different trial scenarios and parameter settings.
Findings suggest combining OS with health scores that capture a patient’s overall well-being, rather than just cancer progression, for a fuller picture.
The big idea? By enhancing how we assess evidence, we can prioritize treatments that genuinely extend lives—not just promise quick wins.”
Authors: Luca Locher, Miquel Serra-Burriel, Dario Trapani, Emanuel Nussli,
More posts featuring Shushan Hovsepyan.
Shushan Hovsepyan is the Editor-in-Chief of the OncoDaily Medical Journal, a pediatric oncologist and an adjunct assistant professor at the Yerevan State Medical University. Currently, she is the Editor-in-Chief of OncoDaily Medical Journal.
She completed her clinical fellowship at the National Institute of Cancer in Milan, Italy and at the St. Anna Children’s Research Hospital in Austria. Furthermore, she held a research fellowship position at the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer in Brussels, Belgium. She is a former co-chair of the SIOP Global Health Network Education and Training Working Group.
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