UK National Screening Committee position statement on surrogate outcomes in cancer screening trials

Key Points

• The aim is to assess the role of surrogate outcomes in cancer screening trials and their effectiveness compared to mortality rates.
• Review of current evidence on surrogate outcomes in cancer screening.
• Evaluation of how surrogate outcomes may influence further research.
• Analysis of the limitations of surrogate outcomes compared to definitive outcomes.
• Surrogate outcomes provide early evidence of potential benefits of screening.
• However, they are not sufficient to replace mortality as the key outcome measure in trials.
• Further evaluative work is needed to clarify the role of surrogate outcomes.