Acronym/Terminology Cheat Sheet
DFS – Disease Free Survival
RFS – Recurrence Free Survival
PFS – Progression Free Survival
OS – Overall Survival
ITT – Intention to Treat (population)
TTF – Time to treatment failure
HR – Hazard Ratio
AE – Adverse Events
irAE – Immune-related Adverse Events
SOC – Standard of care
BSC – Best supportive care
QoL – Quality of Life
TWiST – Time without increase in Symptoms or Toxicity
TOX – Time with toxicity
RCT – Randomized Control Trial
ctDNA – Circulating tumor DNA (refers to small fragments of DNA that are released into the bloodstream by tumor cells).
NED – No evidence of disease
MED – Molecular evidence of disease
MRD – Minimal residual disease
RED – Radiographic evidence of disease
PD – Progressive Disease (>20% growth)
SD – Stable Disease (-30% to 20% change)
PR – Partial Response (-30% to -99% change)
CR – Complete Response (100% disappearance)
DCR – Disease Control Rate (SD + PR + CR)
ORR – Overall Response Rate (PR + CR)
Other terms often used in discussions of trials:
RECIST 1.1 – Standard for measuring tumor results (CT post for more info)
iRECIST – Adjusted RECIST 1.1 to account for immunotherapy responses (not widely adopted)
P-value & confidence interval (CI) – Explained here: https://x.com/banitoto/status/2043207695927316594?s=46&t=tmeOSPv7kHc2y1N71xVgyA
Average – Almost always a MEDIAN (half higher & half lower) when referring to survival measures (CT post for more info)
Assay – A laboratory test to find and measure the amount of a specific substance
Sensitivity – A test’s ability to correctly identify people who have a disease. A highly sensitive test has few false negatives, meaning it misses fewer cases of disease
Specificity– A test’s ability to correctly identify people who do not have a disease. A highly specific test has few false positives
Prognostic – A marker or characteristic indicating the likely future health outcome or disease progression (e.g., survival, recurrence, spread) independent of treatment
Predictive – A marker indicating if a patient will benefit from a specific treatment or therapy.
Hazard Ratio – a measure of how often a specific event (e.g., death, relapse) occurs in one group compared to another over time
P-value – (probability value) is a statistical measure ranging from 0 to 1 that helps determine if research results are statistically significant
Confidence Interval (CI) – Shows the range of values you expect the true estimate to fall between.
For more explanation on what to look for in P-Value & Confidence Intervals: Helpful post on this: https://community.colontown.org/topics/43976/topic_feed_posts/1019216
More terms & definitions can be found here on COLONTOWN University