Progression-free survival ratio as end point for phase II trials in advanced solid tumors

SCOPUS: le.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The impact of data errors on the outcome of randomized clinical trials

Background/aims: Considerable human and financial resources are typically spent to ensure that data collected for clinical trials are free from errors. We investigated the impact of random and systematic errors on the outcome of randomized clinical trials. Methods: We used individual patient data relating to response endpoints of interest in two published randomized clinical trials, one in ophthalmology and one in oncology. These randomized clinical trials enrolled 1186 patients with age-related macular degeneration and 736 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. The ophthalmology trial tested the benefit of pegaptanib for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and identified a statistically significant treatment benefit, whereas the oncology trial assessed the benefit of adding cetuximab to a regimen of capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and bevacizumab for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and failed to identify a statistically significant treatment difference. We simulated trial results by adding errors that were independent of the treatment group (random errors) and errors that favored one of the treatment groups (systematic errors). We added such errors to the data for the response endpoint of interest for increasing proportions of randomly selected patients. Results: Random errors added to up to 50% of the cases produced only slightly inflated variance in the estimated treatment effect of both trials, with no qualitative change in the p-value. In contrast, systematic errors produced bias even for very small proportions of patients with added errors. Conclusion: A substantial amount of random errors is required before appreciable effects on the outcome of randomized clinical trials are noted. In contrast, even a small amount of systematic errors can severely bias the estimated treatment effects. Therefore, resources devoted to randomized clinical trials should be spent primarily on minimizing sources of systematic errors which can bias the analyses, rather than on random errors which result only in a small loss in powe

Impact of on-site initiation visits on patient recruitment and data quality in a randomized trial of adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer

International audiencePURPOSE: To provide empirical evidence on the impact of on-site initiation visits on the following outcomes: patient recruitment, quantity and quality of data submitted to the trial coordinating office, and patients' follow-up time. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This methodological study was performed as part of a randomized trial comparing two combination chemotherapies for adjuvant treatment of breast cancer. Centers participating to the trial were randomized to either receive systematic on-site visits (Visited group), or not (Non-visited group). RESULTS: The study was terminated after two years, while the main randomized trial continued. Of the 135 centers that had expressed an interest in the trial, only 69 randomized at least one patient (35/68 in the Visited group, 34/67 in the Non-visited group). Almost two-thirds of the patients were entered by 17 centers (10 in the Visited group, seven in the Non-visited group) that accrued more than 10 patients each. None of the prespecified outcomes favored the group of centers submitted to on-site initiation visits (ie, mean number of queries par patient: 6.1 +/- 9.7 versus 5.4 +/- 6.4, respectively for the Visited and Non-visited groups). Spontaneous transmittal of case report forms, although required by protocol, was low in both randomized groups (mean number of pages per patient: 1.5 +/- 2.0 versus 2.1 +/- 2.3, respectively), with investigators submitting about one-third of the expected forms on time (29% and 39%, respectively). LIMITATIONS: This study could not evaluate the impact of repeated on-site visits on clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION: Systematic on-site initiation visits did not contribute significantly to this clinical trial

Disease-free survival as a surrogate for overall survival in patients with HER2-positive, early breast cancer in trials of adjuvant trastuzumab for up to 1 year: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Although frequently used as a primary endpoint, disease-free survival has not been validated as a surrogate for overall survival in early breast cancer. We investigated this surrogacy in the adjuvant setting of treatment with anti-HER2 antibodies. Methods: In a systematic review and meta-analysis, we identified published and non-published randomised controlled trials with completed accrual and available disease-free survival and overall survival results for the intention-to-treat population as of September 2016. Bibliographic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), clinical trial registries (Clinicaltrials.gov, EU Clinical Trials Register, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and PharmNet.Bund), and trial registries from relevant pharmaceutical companies were searched. Eligibility for treatment of HER2-positive early breast cancer required at least one group to have an anti-HER antibody treatment (ie, trastuzumab, pertuzumab, or trastuzumab emtansine) planned for 12 months, and at least one control arm with chemotherapy without the antibody, a lower total dose or duration of the antibody, or observation alone. Units of analysis were contrasts: two-group trials gave rise to one contrast, whereas trials with more than two groups gave rise to more than one contrast. We excluded trials enrolling patients with recurrent, metastatic, or non-invasive disease, and those testing neoadjuvant therapy exclusively. Our primary objective was to estimate patient-level and trial-level correlations between disease-free survival and overall survival. We measured the association between disease-free survival and overall survival using Spearman's correlation coefficient (r s ), and the association between hazard ratios (HRs) for disease-free survival and overall survival using R 2 .We computed the surrogate threshold effect, the maximum HR for disease-free survival that statistically predicts an HR for overall survival less than 1·00 in a future trial. Findings: Eight trials (n=21 480 patients) gave rise to a full set (12 contrasts). Patient-level associations between disease-free and overall survival were strong (r s =0·90 [95% CI 0·89–0·90]). Trial-level associations gave rise to values of R 2 of 0·75 (95% CI 0·50–1·00) for the full set. Subgroups defined by nodal status and hormone receptor status yielded qualitatively similar results. Depending on the expected number of deaths in a future trial, the surrogate threshold effects ranged from 0·56 to 0·81, based on the full set. Interpretation: These findings suggest that it is appropriate to continue to use disease-free survival as a surrogate for overall survival in trials in HER-2-positive, early breast cancer. The key limitation of this study is the dependence of its results on the trials included and on the existence of an outlying trial. Funding: Roche Pharma AG.SCOPUS: ar.jDecretOANoAutActifinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

A pilot study of therapeutic vaccination with envelope protein E1 in 35 patients with chronic hepatitis C.

New treatments are needed for chronic hepatitis C patients in whom viral clearance cannot be achieved. Thirty-five chronic hepatitis C patients (genotype 1) were randomized to receive 20 mug of recombinant HCV E1 (E1) (n = 26) or placebo (n = 9) intramuscularly at weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24. Thirty-four then received open-label E1 vaccine at weeks 50, 53, 56, 59, 62, and 65. Twenty-four patients (12 men, 12 women; mean age, 52 y; 18 interferon-based treatment failures; mean baseline alanine aminotransferase [ALT] level, 118 IU/L) underwent a biopsy before and after 2 courses of E1, 17 months later. Liver histology was scored by 2 blinded pathologists according to the Ishak and Metavir systems. Postinjection reactions were similar to placebo (alum only). Nine of 24 patients (38%) had improvement of 2 points or more, 10 (41%) remained stable, and 5 (21%) showed worsening in total Ishak score. Nine patients (38%) improved both on Ishak and Metavir fibrosis scores. Plasma HCV-RNA levels remained unchanged, whereas ALT levels showed a trend toward a decrease during treatment. All but 3 patients developed a significant de novo E1-specific T-cell response. The increase in anti-E1 antibody levels correlated with the decrease in total Ishak score and with the relative decreases in both Ishak fibrosis score and ALT level (all P < or =.01). In conclusion, E1 therapeutic vaccination is well tolerated and the observed effects warrant further study

Prognostic and predictive value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in a phase III randomized adjuvant breast cancer trial in node-positive breast cancer comparing the addition of docetaxel to doxorubicin with doxorubicin-based chemotherapy: BIG 02-98.

Previous preclinical and clinical data suggest that the immune system influences prognosis and response to chemotherapy (CT); however, clinical relevance has yet to be established in breast cancer (BC). We hypothesized that increased lymphocytic infiltration would be associated with good prognosis and benefit from immunogenic CT-in this case, anthracycline-only CT-in selected BC subtypes.Clinical Trial, Phase IIIComparative StudyJournal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tSCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Final 10-year results of the Breast International Group 2–98 phase III trial and the role of Ki67 in predicting benefit of adjuvant docetaxel in patients with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer

Aim: Breast International Group (BIG) 2–98 is a randomised phase III trial that tested the effect of adding docetaxel, either in sequence to or in combination with anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy, in women with node-positive breast cancer (BC). Here, we present the 10-year final trial safety and efficacy analyses. We also report an exploratory analysis on the predictive value of Ki67 for docetaxel efficacy, in the BIG 2–98 and using a pooled analysis of three other randomised trials. Patients and methods: 2887 patients were randomly assigned in a 2 × 2 trial design to one of four treatments. The primary objective was to evaluate the overall efficacy of docetaxel on disease free survival (DFS). Secondary objectives included comparisons of sequential docetaxel versus sequential control arm, safety and overall survival (OS). Ki67 expression was centrally evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Results: After a median follow-up of 10.1 years, the addition of docetaxel did not significantly improve DFS or OS (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.81–1.04; P = 0.16 and HR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.76–1.03; P = 0.11, respectively). Sequential docetaxel did not improve DFS compared to the sequential control arm (HR = 0.86, 95% CI = 0.72–1.03; P = 0.10). In oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive tumours with Ki67 ⩾ 14%, the addition of docetaxel resulted in 5.4% improvement in 10-year OS (P = 0.03, test for interaction = 0.1). In a multivariate model, there was a trend for improved DFS and OS in ER-positive patients with high Ki67 and treated with docetaxel (HR = 0.79, 95% CI = 0.63–1.01; P = 0.05 and HR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.57–1.01; P = 0.06, respectively). A pooled analysis of four randomised trials showed a benefit of taxanes in highly proliferative ER-positive disease but not in low proliferating tumours (interaction test P = 0.01). Conclusion: The DFS benefit previously demonstrated with sequential docetaxel is no longer observed at 10 years. However, an exploratory analysis suggested a benefit of docetaxel in patients with highly proliferative ER-positive BC