Survival benefit refers to the measurable improvement in a patient's lifespan resulting from a specific medical treatment or intervention, compared to an alternative treatment or no treatment at all.
📐 Key Points: It is typically assessed in terms of:
Overall Survival (OS): Time from treatment initiation to death from any cause.
Progression-Free Survival (PFS): Time during which the disease does not worsen.
A survival benefit exists if the treated group lives longer on average than the control group.
📊 Example: If patients treated with Drug A live 14.9 months, while those treated with Drug B live 7.9 months, Drug A provides a survival benefit of 7 months.
⚠️ Important Considerations: The benefit must be statistically significant and ideally clinically meaningful.
A modest survival gain (e.g., 1–2 months) may not justify the use of expensive or toxic treatments unless quality of life also improves.
Median survival is often used, but survival benefit should also consider long-term responders and survival curves.