Endpoints and surrogate endpoints in colorectal cancer: a review of recent developments

The purpose of this review is to discuss recently published work on endpoints for early and advanced colorectal cancer, as well as the statistical approaches used to validate surrogate endpoints.

Most attempts to validate surrogate endpoints have estimated the correlation between the surrogate and the true endpoint, and between the treatment effects on these endpoints. The correlation approach has made it possible to validate disease-free survival and progression-free survival as acceptable surrogates for overall survival in early and advanced disease, respectively.

The search for surrogate endpoints will intensify over the coming years. In parallel, efforts to either standardize or extend the endpoints or both will improve the reliability and relevance of clinical trial results.