Assessing the effect of metastasis-directed therapy in oligometastatic disease using the restricted mean survival time

Metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is emerging as an effective therapeutic option for oligometastatic disease (OMD). However, a lack of phase III data, consensus guidelines, and toxicity concerns limit its widespread use. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) routinely report hazard ratios (HRs) and medians that lack clear clinical and robust interpretation. Restricted-mean survival time (RMST) is the duration of time a patient is expected to survive over the follow-up period, providing a robust and interpretable alternative. We analyzed the efficacy of SBRT using RMST.

All registered RCTs of ablative radiotherapy in OMD in ClinicalTrials.gov through 2022 were identified. Data were reconstructed from Kaplan–Meier curves, and the HRs and RMST differences were estimated for surrogate endpoints (SEs) and overall survival (OS).

Six studies comprising 426 patients met the inclusion criteria. The RMST differences for SEs ranged from 4.6 months in a study by Iyengar et al. to 11.1 months in SABR-COMET. The RMST differences for OS in SABR-COMET, Gomez et al., and SINDAS studies were 12.6, 15 and 7.9 months, respectively.

RMST demonstrates the efficacy of local treatment in OMD. Representing the expected survival time, this method effectively communicates outcomes to patients and clinicians.