A case for the use of receiver operating characteristic analysis of potential clinical efficacy biomarkers in advanced renal cell carcinoma

Assess patient-level utility of suggested pretreatment biomarkers of sunitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Kaplan-Meier analysis of data from a randomized, Phase II study (n = 292) suggested baseline predictive value for circulating soluble Ang-2 and MMP-2 and HIF-1α percentage of tumor expression.

Using this dataset, the sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated, using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.

Based on a ROC (sensitivity vs 1 - specificity) threshold AUC value of >0. 8, neither Ang-2 (0. 67) nor MMP-2 (0. 65), nor HIF-1α percentage of tumor expression (0. 65), performed appropriately from a patient-selection standpoint.

To properly assess potential biomarkers, sensitivity and specificity characteristics should be obtained by ROC analysis.

Future oncology (London, England). 2015 Dec 17 [Epub ahead of print]

Patricia A English, J Andrew Williams, Jean-François Martini, Robert J Motzer, Olga Valota, Richard E Buller

Pfizer Oncology, 10646 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. , Pfizer Oncology, 10646 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. , Pfizer Oncology, 10646 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. , Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA. , Pfizer Oncology, via AM Mozzoni 12, Milan, 20152, Italy. , Pfizer Oncology, 10646 Science Center Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.

PubMed