Evaluation of tumor-size response metrics to predict overall survival in Western and Chinese patients with first-line metastatic colorectal cancer

Abstract

Purpose: To assess new metrics of tumor-size response to predict overall survival (OS) in colorectal cancer (CRC) in Western and Chinese patients.

Patients and methods: Various metrics of tumor-size response were estimated using longitudinal tumor size models and data from two phase III studies that compared bevacizumab plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy as first-line therapy in Western (n = 923) and Chinese (n = 203) patients with CRC. Baseline prognostic factors and tumor-size metrics estimates were assessed in multivariate models to predict OS. Predictive performances of the models were assessed by simulating multiple replicas of the phase III studies.

Results: Time to tumor growth (TTG) was the best metric to predict OS. TTG fully captured bevacizumab effect. Chinese ethnicity had no impact on OS or on the TTG-OS relationships. The model correctly predicted OS distributions in each arm as well as bevacizumab hazard ratio (model prediction, 0.75 v 0.68 observed in Western patients; 95% prediction interval, 0.62 to 0.91).

Conclusion: TTG captured therapeutic benefit with bevacizumab in first-line CRC patients. Chinese ethnicity had no impact. Longitudinal tumor size data coupled with model-based approaches may offer a powerful alternative in the design and analysis of early clinical studies.