With ever increasing demands on the constrained resources available for health care services, no one involved in decision making in health care can continue to ignore the economic costs of the services provided or the relative value for money offered by the available treatments. Economic evaluation has therefore become an important and indispensable tool for medical deci sion making, alongside the well-known methods for clinical eval uation. This is also true for cancer, despite the aura of sanctity often of surrounding this dreaded disease and the apparent willingness the general population to spend large sums in this area and do "everything possible" for the patients. In recent years, articles dealing with assessing the costs and benefits of various cancer treatments have begun to appear in scientific medical and eco nomic journals. This book provides a comprehensive survey and assessment of the current state of the art of economic evaluations and cost ana lyses in cancer. It gives an introduction to the methods available for economic evaluations, before surveying and assessing the available publications. Separate chapters are devoted to the most prevalent cancers, and in each chapter the current clinical prac tice and research problems are summarized in order to provide a background for the economic analyses. At the end, a summary assessment of the literature is provided along with some sugges tions for a future research agenda.

Unlike many other areas in health care, the practice of oncology presents unique challenges that make assessing and improving value especially complex. First, patients and professionals feel a well-justified sense of urgency to treat for cure, and if cure is not possible, to extend life and reduce the burden of disease. Second, treatments are often both life sparing and highly toxic. Third, distinctive payment structures for cancer medicines are intertwined with practice. Fourth, providers often face tremendous pressure to apply the newest technologies to patients who fail to respond to established treatments, even when the evidence supporting those technologies is incomplete or uncertain, and providers may be reluctant to stop toxic treatments and move to palliation, even at the end of life. Finally, the newest and most novel treatments in oncology are among the most costly in medicine. This volume summarizes the results of a workshop that addressed these issues from multiple perspectives, including those of patients and patient advocates, providers, insurers, health care researchers, federal agencies, and industry. Its broad goal was to describe value in oncology in a complete and nuanced way, to better inform decisions regarding developing, evaluating, prescribing, and paying for cancer therapeutics.

Over the last decade, the volume of research into the pathophysiology and genetics of pulmonary diseases has increased greatly. This has led to the development of new treatments and therapies for many diseases, including lung cancer, asthma and cystic fibrosis. This issue of the ERS Monograph comprehensively demonstrates the developments in respiratory medicine in recent years. It outlines the importance of epidemiology in respiratory medicine, and will prove a methodological tool that will help disease management. It should also be used as an advocacy tool for the sake of public health.

Health at a Glance compares key indicators for population health and health system performance across OECD members, candidate and partner countries. It highlights how countries differ in terms of the health status and health-seeking behaviour of their citizens; access to and quality of health care; and the resources available for health. Analysis is based on the latest comparable data across 80 indicators, with data coming from official national statistics, unless otherwise stated.

This book introduces and discusses the most important aspects of clinical research methods and biostatistics for oncologists, pursuing a tailor-made and practical approach. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been in vogue in the last few decades, particularly in rapidly advancing fields such as oncology. This approach has been used to support decision-making processes worldwide, sparking new clinical research and guidelines on clinical and surgical oncology. Clinical oncology research has many peculiarities, including specific study endpoints, a special focus on survival analyses, and a unique perspective on EBM. However, during medical studies and in general practice, these topics are barely taught. Moreover, even when EBM and clinical cancer research are discussed, they are presented in a theoretical fashion, mostly focused on formulas and numbers, rather than on clinical application for a proper literature appraisal. Addressing that gap, this book discusses more practical aspects of clinical research and biostatistics in oncology, instead of relying only on mathematical formulas and theoretical considerations. Methods and Biostatistics in Oncology will help readers develop the skills they need to understand the use of research on everyday oncology clinical practice for study design and interpretation, as well to demystify the use of EBM in oncology.

The pace of discovery, within the EU, of scientific aspects of cancer research and of developments in the clinical field is so rapid that it is sometimes difficult to keep abreast. This brief overview attempts to highlight some of the advances in the field, as part of BIOMED programme funded research and specific results due to the co-operative spirit established by the scientific community. It is particularly worth noting the financial investment of 35 million ECU in the current programme, has d as a catalyst in attracting a large number of Member States funded research in pooling their collective knowledge base.