This article provides an outline for a cost-effectiveness analysis of a drug that slows the consequences of Alzheimer's disease. Such an analysis cannot easily be performed for 2 main reasons. The first is that often relatives and friends, rather than professionals, take care of the patient....

Background: Temozolomide (TMZ) is an oral alkylating agent with demonstrated efficacy as therapy for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and anaplastic astrocytoma. TMZ has widely replaced the procarbazine, lomustine plus vincristine (PCV) combination for the treatment of malignant brain tumours as a...

Introduction: Patients undergoing abdominal surgeries face substantial risk of experiencing venous thromboembolic events in the perioperative period. The low-molecular-weight heparin dalteparin sodium is clinically effective in reducing the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in these...

Background: MA17 was a randomised placebo-controlled trial of letrozole 2.5 mg/day in 5187 estrogen receptor-positive, 50% node-negative, postmenopausal women (median age 62 years at enrolment) with early breast cancer, post-5 years' adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. The objective of this evaluation...

Objectives: To compare the cost effectiveness of azathioprine (AZA), methotrexate (MTX) and no immunosuppression for maintaining remission of moderate to severe inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in New Zealand Caucasians, and to determine whether prospective testing for poor metabolisers of AZA...

Objective: The value of early detection of subclinical hypothyroidism is the object of a long lasting debate. In this study, we assessed the cost effectiveness of a policy based upon screening for this condition through thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4)...

Background: A variety of pharmaceuticals are currently approved for the treatment of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but their relative economic value is unclear. The goal of this analysis was to compare the cost effectiveness of adefovir, entecavir, lamivudine,...

Objective: To measure the cost effectiveness of a supportive care intervention when the no-treatment option is unrealistic in an analysis of recombinant human erythropoietin (epoetin) treatment for anaemic patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Further, to assess whether quality-adjusted...

Background: Denosumab has recently been shown to be well tolerated, to increase bone mineral density (BMD) and to significantly reduce the risk of hip, vertebral and non-vertebral fractures in the FREEDOM (Fracture REduction Evaluation of Denosumab in Osteoporosis every 6 Months) trial. It is...

Background: Recent National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance recommended that when traditional NSAIDs or cyclo-oxygenase (COX)-2 selective inhibitors are used by people with osteoarthritis (OA), they should be prescribed along with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI)....