Cost-effectiveness analysis of strategies for HER2 testing of breast cancer patients in France.

Objectives: A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted comparing diagnostic strategies for determining the HER2 status of invasive breast carcinomas, as an indication for trastuzumab at metastatic relapse.

Methods: A decision tree compared five strategies distinguished by (i) the use of immunohistochemical (IHC) and/or fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques, and (ii) the test schedule (at initial diagnosis or metastatic relapse). Most cost and effectiveness data came from a French multicentric study of 2,045 patients from eight hospitals.

[Preliminary results of the assessment of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for prostatic and head and neck tumors (STIC 2001)].

Introduction: Between May 2002 and May 2004, eight French comprehensive cancer centres did a prospective nonrandomized study including 200 patients, 100 with cancer of the prostate and 100 with head and neck cancers. Half of each patient group was treated by IMRT and the others by RTC 3D. This clinical study was associated with an economic study and a physics study.

[Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in France: The boost of the national funding for the new expensive innovative technologies (STIC 2001 and 2002)].

The STIC 2001 and STIC 2002 projects intend to allow the implementation and the assessment of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy in France. IMRT is an innovative technique in which the high-dose radiation volume conforms to an accurately defined target volume with less morbidity to the surrounding normal tissues. The main medical objectives of the projects are (1) to improve the therapeutic index while decreasing acute toxicity and late sequelae (mainly xerostomia and acute mucite for head and neck tumors), which allows an increase in the radiation dose to the tumor and then a better tumor control; (2) to propose a salvage treatment to patients who locally recurred in previously irradiated sites; (3) to determine the optimal treatment guidelines for a safe use of the technique in clinical routine.