Memorizing 5y OS, DFS, LRC, etc for all cancers

[drnick098]

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I'm studying for the boards currently, and am at the stage where I'm trying to commit 5 year outcomes to memory. It's pretty hard not to get confused between the different sites. I'm thinking about making a massive table with 5 year outcomes for all the common cancers at the different stages.

e.g.
Esophageal cancer
5yOS 5yDFS 5yLRC
Stage I
Stage II
Stage III
Stage IV

NSCLC
....

I'm sure this is something all rad onc residents have to do at some stage before doing the boards and I'm keen not to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. Does anyone know of a textbook / review article / wiki / resident's notes with this kind of info?

 

[ramsesthenice]

I'm studying for the boards currently, and am at the stage where I'm trying to commit 5 year outcomes to memory. It's pretty hard not to get confused between the different sites. I'm thinking about making a massive table with 5 year outcomes for all the common cancers at the different stages.

e.g.
Esophageal cancer
5yOS 5yDFS 5yLRC
Stage I
Stage II
Stage III
Stage IV

NSCLC
....

I'm sure this is something all rad onc residents have to do at some stage before doing the boards and I'm keen not to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. Does anyone know of a textbook / review article / wiki / resident's notes with this kind of info?

No such thing exists. Mainly because you can't just shout out a number. You need to say 5 year OS in x big study was... That's actually a good thing though. When you are deciding which studies to talk about you can stack it in your favor by talking about the ones you know in and out.

Also, I think making your own table while taking a lot of time would actually be great learning and well worth the time.

 

[Reaganite]

I think it's really low yield for boards to memorize the numbers. I also think it will be impossibly frustrating. Most of the 5 year survival and LRC numbers that came up for me on writtens or orals were from major studies or were from the major disease sites we treat (lung, cervix, prostate, etc.). Sure, you'll get a few "what is the 5-year survival for stage IIB fallopian tube cancer" on the in service exam, but those questions are so uncommon that I don't think it's really worth your time. For orals, ballpark figures are fine and again, the only survival numbers I was asked were for the major disease sites. Best advice I was ever given is in general 5 year OS for stage 1 is 75-100%; stage 2: 50-75%; stage 3: 25-50% and stage 4: 0-25%. If it's a really bad actor, choose the lower number of the range; good actor, choose the higher end. If it's in the middle, split the difference. Try this scheme with lung vs. endometrial and see how nicely it works. Again, these are ballparks and won't apply to every cancer, but I found it to work quite well on written and oral exams.