This article concerns development and use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in clinical trials to evaluate medical products. A PRO is any report coming directly from patients, without interpretation by physicians or others, about how they function or feel in relation to a health condition and its therapy. PRO instruments are used to measure these patient reports. PROs provide a unique perspective on medical therapy, because some effects of a health condition and its therapy are known only to patients. Properly developed and evaluated PRO instruments also have the potential to provide more sensitive and specific measurements of the effects of medical therapies, thereby increasing the efficiency of clinical trials that attempt to measure the meaningful treatment benefits of those therapies. Poorly developed and evaluated instruments may provide misleading conclusions or data that cannot be used to support product labeling claims. We review selected major challenges from Food and Drug Administration's perspective in using PRO instruments, measures, and end points to support treatment benefit claims in product labeling. These challenges highlight the need for sponsors to formulate desired labeling claim(s) prospectively, to acquire and document information needed to support these claim(s), and to identify existing instruments or develop new and more appropriate PRO instruments for evaluating treatment benefit in the defined population in which they will seek claims.

Four non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) registration trials were utilized to develop models linking survival to risk factors and changes in tumor size during treatment. The purpose was to leverage existing quantitative knowledge to facilitate future development of anti-NSCLC drugs. Eleven risk factors were screened using a Cox model. A mixed exponential decay and linear growth model was utilized for modeling tumor size. Survival times were described in a parametric model. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score and baseline tumor size were consistent prognostic factors of survival. Tumor size was well described by the mixed model. The parametric survival model includes ECOG score, baseline tumor size, and week 8 tumor size change as predictors of survival duration. The change in tumor size at week 8 allows early assessment of the activity of an experimental regimen. The survival model and the tumor model will be beneficial for early screening of candidate drugs, simulating NSCLC trials, and optimizing trial designs.

SummaryIn both immunoglobulins (Ig) and T cell receptors (TCR.), the rearrangement of V, D, and J region sequence elements during lymphocyte maturation creates an enormous degree of diversity in an area referred to as the complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) loop. Variations in the particular V, D, and J elements used, precise points of recombination, and random nucleotide addition all lead to extensive length and sequence heterogeneity. CDR3 loops are often critical for antigen binding in Igs and appear to provide the principal peptide binding residues in TCR.s. To better understand the physical and selective constraints on these sequences, we have compiled information on CDR3 size variation for Ig H, L (K and X) and TCR a,/3, 3`, and 6. Ig H and TCR 6 CDR3s are the most variable in size and are significantly longer than L and 3' chains, respectively. In contrast, TCR a and 8 chain distributions are highly constrained, with nearly identical average CDR3 lengths, and their length distributions are not altered by thymic selection. Perhaps most significantly, these CDR.3 length profiles suggest that 3'//~ TCILs are more similar to Igs than to o~/8 TCR.s in their putative ligand binding region, and thus 3"/6 and ol/8 T cells may have fundamentally different recognition properties. S Pecific vertebrate immune responses are initiated by B andT lymphocytes via Igs and TCRs, respectively. Although x-ray crystal structures are available only for Igs, TCRs are betieved to share a similar tertiary and quaternary structure (1-3). Antigen-specific immune receptors confer specificity against a wide variety of potential pathogens by recombination of V, D, andJ elements into a single Ig or TCR. variable domain-encoding exon (4). Ig L (K and )x), TCR o~ and TCR q/chains utilize only V and J gene elements, whereas Ig H, TCR/3, and TCR 6 also employ one or more D elements. X-ray structural analysis of antibody-antigen complexes shows that one or both of the CDR3 loops of Ig H and L chains are always involved in antigen contact (4). Similarly, the CDR3s of both a and/3 TCR. chains seem critical for peptide recognition (5, 6). As a result of variation in numbers of D and J elements used, D element reading frames, junctional diversity, and N region nucleotide addition, the estimated number of possible CDR3 sequences is greatest for 3'/6 TCRs and least for Igs (irrespective of somatic mutation), with a/8 TCRs being intermediate (7).Characterization of the length distribution of CDR3 in different immune receptor chains is of interest for two reasons. First, in computer modelling of antibodies, the length of a given CDR has a profound effect on its shape, with differences of even one amino acid able to produce significant changes in the overall structure (8, 9). Thus, the analysis of CDR3 length variation among different antigen receptors might shed light on structure-function relationships in different immune receptor classes. Second, Igs undergo affinity maturation via somatic mutation, which does not change CDR3 tength. T cel...

Purpose: To describe the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review and approval of sunitinib malate (Sutent). Sunitinib received regular approval for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) after disease progression or intolerance to imatinib mesylate (Gleevec). Additionally, sunitinib received accelerated approval for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma. Experimental Design: For the GIST indication, FDA reviewed data from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial with supportive evidence from a single-arm study. For the advanced renal cell carcinoma indication, FDA reviewed data from two single-arm studies of patients with cytokinerefractory metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Results: In patients with imatinib refractory or intolerant GIST, time-to-tumor progression of sunitinib-treated patients was superior to that of placebo-treated patients. Median time-to-tumor progression of sunitinib-treated patients was 27.3 weeks, compared with 6.4 weeks for placebotreated patients (P < 0.0001). Partial responses were observed in 6.8% of sunitinib-treated patients. In patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, partial responses were observed in 25.5% (95% confidence interval, 17.5, 34.9) and 36.5% (95% confidence interval, 24.7, 49.6) of patients treated with sunitinib. Median response durations were 27.1and 54 weeks. The most common adverse events attributed to sunitinib included diarrhea, mucositis, skin abnormalities, and altered taste. Reductions in left ventricular ejection fraction and severe hypertension were also more common in sunitinib-treated patients. Conclusions: On January 26, 2006, the FDA approved sunitinib for the treatment of patients with imatinib refractory or intolerant GIST. Accelerated approval was granted for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma.

; for the SOPHIA Study Group IMPORTANCE ERRB2 (formerly HER2)-positive advanced breast cancer (ABC) remains typically incurable with optimal treatment undefined in later lines of therapy. The chimeric antibody margetuximab shares ERBB2 specificity with trastuzumab but incorporates an engineered Fc region to increase immune activation. OBJECTIVE To compare the clinical efficacy of margetuximab vs trastuzumab, each with chemotherapy, in patients with pretreated ERBB2-positive ABC. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The SOPHIA phase 3 randomized open-label trial of margetuximab plus chemotherapy vs trastuzumab plus chemotherapy enrolled 536 patients from August 26, 2015, to October 10, 2018, at 166 sites in 17 countries. Eligible patients had disease progression on 2 or more prior anti-ERBB2 therapies and 1 to 3 lines of therapy for metastatic disease. Data were analyzed from February 2019 to October 2019. INTERVENTIONS Investigators selected chemotherapy before 1:1 randomization to margetuximab, 15 mg/kg, or trastuzumab, 6 mg/kg (loading dose, 8 mg/kg), each in 3-week cycles. Stratification factors were metastatic sites (Յ2, >2), lines of therapy (Յ2, >2), and chemotherapy choice. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Sequential primary end points were progression-free survival (PFS) by central blinded analysis and overall survival (OS). All α was allocated to PFS, followed by OS. Secondary end points were investigator-assessed PFS and objective response rate by central blinded analysis. RESULTS Atotalof536patientswererandomizedtoreceivemargetuximab(n = 266)ortrastuzumab (n = 270). The median age was 56 (27-86) years; 266 (100%) women were in the margetuximab group, while 267 (98.9%) women were in the trastuzumab group. Groups were balanced. Allbut1patienthadreceivedpriorpertuzumab,and489(91.2%)hadreceivedpriorado-trastuzumab emtansine. Margetuximab improved primary PFS over trastuzumab with 24% relative risk reduction (hazard ratio [HR]