>> It's now up to iressa to prove it's tarceva's equivalent. <<
As a post-marketing commitment to the FDA, AZN is conducting a phase-4 trial to assess Iressa’s survival benefit in the refractory colorectal setting. Results are due next year.
>> Tell me how they can achieve a *statistically significant* median survival benefit yet you're arguing their may not be much difference in mean survival. <<
I don’t recall saying anything about mean survival –only the median.
Your own comment about the median survival (“So there must be benefit over and above the 10% or so with the particular egf mutations…”) is tautological because anything that extends median survival—even if by only one hour—has to by definition affect at least 50% of the patient pool.
>> You misunderstood PoorGradStudent. His comment wasn't about failed trials, it was about the patient populations, i.e. How many prior treatment regimens they had failed. <<
So was my reply.
“The efficient-market hypothesis may be
the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated
in any area of human knowledge!”