Does anyone know how to look up clinical trial results of targeted therapy drugs?

HI Annie...  You can google the drug and get a lot of info about it... but it really is not that helpful.  Same with side effects... some people have few some have many.  Although knowing what to look for side effect wise can help prepare, just in case.  So, for my first drug, I got my Onc to give me a drug for nausea... and I never had any... lucky..!

As for the results, that data is somewhat obtuse.  So, if the drug has a 28% response rate, and then they mention how many months, etc.  Now that sounds low.  But that includes people that could not tolerate the side effects and had to stop the drug.  Plus some people have other health issues that end up being a conflict.  And besides, the odds really do not matter..  what matters is that the drug works for you.    Being we are all different, the only way to know for sure is to try it..  That said some of the sub-types of RCC are known not to respond well to some drugs.

Good Luck..!

Ron

There is not an easy way to determine what trial results mean to you--which is always the essential question.  It is just best to remember that trials and the data is really to give some general comparisons and to create a common language for all the doctors.  Where you fit is far more difficult to determine.

  The data that comes from trials is always based on the group comparisons, and even if you "sound like" the group, there are variations in that, too.  For example, some trials are with newly diagnosed patients who have had nephrectomies and nothing else.  Some trials will have included patients who have been treated with different drugs previously, and other not.  Most trials are given to patients who have clear cell RCC, so a big mix of non-clear cell patients in another trial may affect those outcomes.

Also you must be sure you understand the language.  You will see some writers referring to survival of 12 months, or the drug "giving you 12 months".  Be aware that no trial will state that.  That info is usually couched in terms like "Progression Free Survival" or PFS.  That means that the patient GROUP had no new obvious disease (or progression) for 12 months.  That is usually the median number of months, with half having a longer period of PFS, and half having a shorter period of PFS.  You might also see a range given of 6-28 months or similar.  That means that some progressed at 6 months, but someone else did not progress until 28 month, about again the median was 12 months. 

Overall Survival (OS) is used less often of later, thanks to the fact that we are surviving longer, and often there is no way to measure the median OS survival when lots of patients continue to live!  Yay!  But those same patients may go on to try different medications, or did so previously.  Thus that OS is a messy, less helpful statistic to use.

On my blog at www.peggyRCC.wordpress.com, I try to explain this and other RCC issues in greater detail.  Always happy to respond with the information library that I have.

It has been ten years since I was in the hospital undergoing high dose itnterleukin 2 treatments, which saved my life and turned me into a kidney cancer advocate.  Wishing good health for all, starting with information to help you understand the manage your disease.

Peggy z