overall survival overall survival
How long people live after a diagnosis or starting a study treatment.
Example of overall survival in a sentence
Overall survival is sometimes measured in clinical research studies about study treatments for serious illnesses or conditions to find out how well the study treatment is working for participants.
More Info
Overall survival is a study endpoint that measures how long participants stay alive after a new diagnosis or starting a study treatment. The overall survival is often measured as a rate at the end of a specific time period, such as, the percentage of participants alive at five years.
There are other endpoints that study teams may collect such as quality-of-life or how long participants remain disease-free.
Other info to think about when joining a study
You may see the term “overall survival” used to describe what the researchers are trying to understand about the study treatment in the research study.
It is important to remember that overall survival is measured at a population level and does not apply directly to any one individual. If you see the term overall survival or overall survival rate, you should ask your study team how that information might apply to you and your health situation.
