A cost-outcome analysis of adjuvant postmastectomy locoregional radiotherapy in premenopausal node-positive breast cancer patients.

Purpose: To calculate cost-effectiveness and cost-utility ratios for adjuvant postmastectomy locoregional radiotherapy in premenopausal node-positive breast cancer patients and to place these ratios in the context of generally accepted medical expenditures.

Materials And Methods: A spreadsheet-based activity costing model using 1997 Canadian (cdn) capital, operating, and administrative costs has been used to identify, from the institutional perspective, the incremental cost of adding radiotherapy to surgery and chemotherapy for this group of patients. Outcome data were derived from two recently published clinical trials and were converted to discounted incremental life years and quality-adjusted life years gained.

Leprosy: a close mimic in a rheumatology clinic.

Cutaneous and neurological manifestations of leprosy are readily diagnosed. However, physicians sometimes fail to recognize that leprosy may present with a rheumatic symptoms. A plethora of rheumatic manifestations are associated with leprosy, particularly with lepra reactions.

Functional evidence for a novel human breast carcinoma metastasis suppressor, BRMS1, encoded at chromosome 11q13.

We previously showed that introduction of a normal, neomycin-tagged human chromosome 11 reduces the metastatic capacity of MDA-MB-435 (435) human breast carcinoma cells by 70-90% without affecting tumorigenicity, suggesting the presence of one or more metastasis suppressor genes encoded on human chromosome 11. To identify the gene(s) responsible, differential display comparing chromosome 11-containing (neo11/ 435) and parental, metastatic cells was done. We describe the isolation and functional characterization of a full-length cDNA for one of the novel genes, designated breast-cancer metastasis suppressor 1 (BRMS1), which maps to human chromosome 11q13.

Prognosis, treatment, and recurrence of breast cancer for women attending or not attending the Screening Mammography Program of British Columbia.

Breast cancer screening programs have been initiated in many countries in the past decade. To determine the impact of the Screening Mammography Program of British Columbia (SMPBC), disease and treatment outcomes for women with breast cancer diagnosed in BC between 1989 and 1996 were compared on the basis of attendance at the SMPBC. An SMPBC attender was a women diagnosed with breast cancer within three years of an SMPBC screen, regardless whether the cancer was detected as a result of that screen.

Staging investigations in patients with breast cancer: the role of bone scans and liver imaging.

Hypothesis: Metastatic workup for patients newly diagnosed as having breast cancer is variable, especially for early disease (T1-2 N0-1). Routine bone scans and liver imaging are often performed without any evidence to support their usefulness.

Design: A retrospective review of patients with breast cancer referred to our center during a 2-year period was performed to determine the value of staging investigations in detecting metastases.

Systemic lupus erythematosus in males.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is a disease commonly seen in women. A few male kindreds have however been described. In this study, twelve male patients of a series of 175 patients with SLE have been analysed.