When an individual is diagnosed with advanced stage or aggressive cancers, one of the questions they may inevitably find themselves asking is how much time they have.

Overall survival (OS) is one important data point for both patients and their physicians to use as an indication of how well a treatment works. OS represents the length of time that a patient is living after the start of their therapy, and it’s widely accepted by cancer researchers as the reliable and objective gold standard of the efficacy of a therapy.

“When cancer therapies can achieve positive overall survival, it means they’re offering patients more life,” explains Frank Neumann, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Clinical Development at Kite, the global cell therapy leader. “OS is one of the most important measures in oncology to show transformational, not simply incremental, innovation.”

Watch the video above as Frank provides more insight on the importance of OS in cancer clinical trials.