Platelet-rich-plasmapheresis for minimising peri-operative allogeneic blood transfusion.

Background: Concerns regarding the safety of transfused blood have generated considerable enthusiasm for the use of technologies intended to reduce the use of allogeneic blood (blood from an unrelated donor). Platelet-rich plasmapheresis (PRP) offers an alternative approach to blood conservation.

Objectives: To examine the evidence for the efficacy of PRP in reducing peri-operative allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, and the evidence for any effect on clinical outcomes such as mortality and re-operation rates.

LDL-cholesterol differences predicted survival benefit in statin trials by the surrogate threshold effect (STE).

Objective: We describe a new statistical method called the surrogate threshold effect (STE) that estimates the threshold level of a surrogate needed in a clinical trial to predict a benefit in the target clinical outcome. In this article, we apply this method to the LDL-cholesterol biomarker surrogate and survival benefit-target outcome in statin trials.

Study Design And Setting: We identified randomized trials comparing statin treatment to placebo treatment or no treatment and reporting all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Response rate or time to progression as predictors of survival in trials of metastatic colorectal cancer or non-small-cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

Background: The duration and cost of cancer clinical trials could be reduced if a surrogate endpoint were used in place of survival. We did a meta-analysis to assess the extent to which two surrogates, tumour response and time to progression, are predictive of mortality in metastatic colorectal cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer.

Methods: Summary data (median time to progression, proportion of patients responding to treatment, and median overall survival) from randomised trials of first-line treatment in colorectal cancer (146 trials) and lung cancer (191 trials) were identified.