The Pharmacoeconomic Analysis of Cetuximab and Panitumumab in the 1st Line Treatment of mCRC in Real Clinical Practice in the Czech Republic.

Background: The anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) drugs cetuximab and panitumumab are currently reimbursed when administered during the first and subsequent lines of treatment of patients in the Czech Republic with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Because cetuximab and panitumumab do not show significant differences in efficacy, their choice may be dependent on cost. This retrospective study analyzed the costs of first-line treatment with cetuximab and panitumumab of patients with mCRC and wild type KRAS, as well as evaluated the correlations between costs and effectiveness, as determined by progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Tracing decadal environmental change in ombrotrophic bogs using diatoms from herbarium collections and transfer functions.

Central European mountain bogs, among the most valuable and threatened of habitats, were exposed to intensive human impact during the 20th century. We reconstructed the subrecent water chemistry and water-table depths using diatom based transfer functions calibrated from modern sampling. Herbarium Sphagnum specimens collected during the period 1918-1998 were used as a source of historic diatom samples.