[Epithelioid trophoblastic tumour with pulmonary metastasis].

Epithelioid trophoblastic tumours are rare kind of gestational trophoblastic disease. Their detection is made by repetitive measurement of ?HCG after any gestational period (including spontaneous abortion). Epithelioid trophoblastic tumour can cause pulmonary metastasis.

Surrogate markers predicting overall survival for lung cancer: ELCWP recommendations.

The present systematic review was performed under the auspices of the European Lung Cancer Working Party (ELCWP) in order to determine the role of early intermediate criteria (surrogate markers), instead of survival, in determining treatment efficacy in patients with lung cancer. Initially, the level of evidence for the use of overall survival to evaluate treatment efficacy was reviewed. Nine questions were then formulated by the ELCWP.

Valproate-doxorubicin: promising therapy for progressing mesothelioma. A phase II study.

No treatment is recommended for patients with malignant mesothelioma (MM) failing after first-line cisplatin-based chemotherapy. In vitro data suggested that valproic acid, a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), had a proapoptotic effect and synergised with doxorubicin to induce apoptosis in MM cells. Our primary end-point was to determine response rate of combined valproic acid and doxorubicin in patients with unresectable MM failing after platinum-based chemotherapy.

Solid recommendations from soft numbers: the test/treatment decision.

The authors review the probability threshold approach to test/treatment decisions developed by Pauker and Kassirer, emphasizing that certain aspects of the nature of medical decisions call for a new approach. The utility threshold approach, while maintaining all the advantages of threshold methods in general, brings improvements. It diminishes the need to accurately assess one of the decision's parameters: the patient's utility for the outcome states.