Tumour response rate

Method

Proportion of patients achieving a complete or partial objective tumour response on imaging assessed against named criteria (WHO bidimensional or RECIST unidimensional), pooled as a risk ratio. Criteria, assessment interval, and whether responses required confirmation recorded on the edge; WHO and RECIST are not interchangeable.

The method is part of the endpoint identity. Studies measuring the same quantity by a different method are held as separate endpoints.

Notes

Confused with survival. Reviews reporting a response-rate benefit frequently state outright that no included trial recorded long-term survival, and their own conclusion is that the inference from response to survival is unsupported; a graph that lets a response-rate edge stand as survival evidence manufactures a claim the literature explicitly refuses to make. Also distinct from disease control rate, which additionally counts stable disease and is therefore always larger, and from progression-free survival, a time-to-event endpoint measured in months rather than a proportion.