Trial reportBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2020
Efficacy gap between phase II and subsequent phase III studies in oncology.
Trial report in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy gap between phase II and subsequent phase III studies in oncology.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2020Trial
- Assessing Overall Survival Benefits in Advanced Cancers: The Role of External Comparator Cohort Studies with Real-World Data.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Expanding the eligibility criteria for drugs in Canada's time-limited health technology assessment and temporary drug access processes will further accelerate access to new medicines.Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques · 2024Article
- Comparison of treatment effect between phase 2 and phase 3 trials in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.United European gastroenterology journal · 2023Review
- Underperformance of Contemporary Phase III Oncology Trials and Strategies for Improvement.Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN · 2021Article
- The Application and Implications of Novel Deterministic Sensitivity Analysis Methods.PharmacoEconomics · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsThere is a trend for more flexibility in timing of evidence generation in relation to marketing authorization, including the option to complete phase III trials after authorization or not at all. This paper investigated the relation between phase II and III clinical trial efficacy in oncology.
methodsAll oncology drugs approved by the European Medicines Agency (2007-2016) were included. Phase II and phase III trials were matched based on indication and treatment and patient characteristics. Reported objective response rates (ORR), median progression-free survival (PFS) and median overall survival (OS) were analysed through weighted mixed-effects regression with previous treatment, treatment regimen, blinding, randomization, marketing authorization type and cancer type as covariates.
resultsA total of 81 phase II-III matches were identified including 252 trials. Mean (standard deviation) weighted difference (phase III minus II) was -4.2% (17.4) for ORR, 2.1 (6.7) months for PFS and -0.3 (5.1) months for OS, indicating very small average differences between phases. Differences varied substantially between individual indications: from -46.6% to 47.3% for ORR, from -5.3 to 35.9 months for PFS and from -13.3 to 10.8 months for OS. All covariates except blinding were associated with differences in effect sizes for at least 1 outcome.
conclusionsThe lack of marked average differences between phases may encourage decision-makers to regard the quality of design and total body of evidence instead of differentiating between phases of clinical development. The large variability emphasizes that replication of study findings remains essential to confirm efficacy of oncology drugs and discern variables associated with demonstrated effects.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.