Overview
Real-world data (RWD) is valuable for supporting clinical trial data in Health Technology Assessment decisions. When local RWD isn’t available quickly, data from other countries may be used. However, this raises questions about whether data from one country can apply to another — a concept called transportability.
This research evaluates the transportability of overall survival estimates from the US to the UK for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving first-line treatment using nationally representative data from the Flatiron Health Research Database for the US and summary-level data from recent publications for the UK. After accounting for differences in population characteristics, overall survival for patients receiving 1L treatment for aNSCLC were similar in the US and UK. This suggests that when local data is unavailable, US data can serve as a reliable alternative, as adjusted US values closely correspond with observed outcomes for UK patients.
Why this matters
When local data is unavailable or insufficient, international data can help reduce uncertainty about how well a drug or treatment is expected to perform in another country. This research validates transportability as a methodology for using data across borders, with the potential to improve standards of care, speed to access treatments, and provide more confidence in how medicines perform. Further research is needed to evaluate the transportability of real-world evidence across additional diseases and between other countries, and to explore the suitability of using other methods of adjustment.