Pulmonary metastasectomy and the use of molecular and radiological markers: is this a way to reduce unavailing surgery? Pulmonary metastasectomy is now one of the commonest thor-acic operations and is a major part of a Thoracic Department's workload. The report by Schweiger et al. [1] in this issue of EJCTS provides a comprehensive update concerning biological and radiological markers. They not...

Human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an oncofetal glycoprotein overexpression of which by gastrointestinal carcinomas is well known. Expression of CEA in head and neck cancer (HNC) is not widely recognized. It is important to note that most of these studies used polyclonal antibodies that may have cross-reactivity with CEA-related antigens. Currently, CEA is being evaluated in preclinical an...

OBJECTIVE There has never been a large, randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of intraoperative imaging on the success of carotid endarterectomy (CEA). This comparison involves cost-effectiveness analysis. METHODS We constructed a decision-analytic model to compare effectiveness and costs of intraoperative ultrasound (IUS) and completion angiography as adjuncts to CEA. Data on proc...

In decision making regarding optimal resource allocation to safeguard public health, policymakers and healthcare providers rely on the availability and reliability of data about the relative costs and benefits of competing treatment options. One such an approach is based on cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) which is intended to be used as a combined metric of both the costs and health outcomes ...

Ordinary least square (OLS) in regression has been widely used to analyze patient-level data in cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). However, the estimates, inference and decision making in the economic evaluation based on OLS estimation may be biased by the presence of outliers. Instead, robust estimation can remain unaffected and provide result which is resistant to outliers. The objective of t...

Diagnostic tools capable of predicting early responses to chemotherapy are required to improve the individual management of cancer patients. The present study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of the serum tumor markers CYFRA 21-1, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125, and CA 19-9 for predicting responses to different chemother...

We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of a change in the carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level during neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. A total of 110 patients with clinical T3/T4 or node-positive disease underwent nCRT and curative total mesorectal resection from February 2006 to December 2013. Serum CEA level was measured before nCRT, aft...

OBJECTIVES Workers with common mental disorders (CMDs) frequently experience recurrent sickness absence but scientifically evaluated interventions to prevent recurrences are lacking. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of a problem solving intervention aimed at preventing recurrent sickness absence in workers with CMDs compared to care as usual. ...