Disease-Free Survival

 Definition:

• Time from treatment (usually surgery or curative therapy) until cancer recurrence or death from any cause, whichever comes first.
• Use:
  • Common in adjuvant or curative settings.
  • Reflects how long patients remain free of detectable cancer after treatment.
• Example:
  
  In early-stage breast cancer, DFS is used to evaluate effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy in preventing recurrence.