Robertson J F, Whynes D K, Dixon A, Blamey R W
Department of Surgery, City Hospital, Nottingham, UK.
Br J Cancer. 1995 Jul;72(1):174-7. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1995.297.
Therapeutic response in patients with advanced breast cancer is conventionally assessed with reference to criteria devised by the International Union Against Cancer. Evidence to date suggests, however, that assessments of equivalent quality may be obtained at lower cost from the use of serum markers. The paper presents estimates of potential cost savings resulting from the use of serum markers in place of conventional assessment and argues that the size of these savings merits the establishment of a randomised controlled trial.
晚期乳腺癌患者的治疗反应通常参照国际抗癌联盟制定的标准进行评估。然而,迄今为止的证据表明,使用血清标志物可以以更低的成本获得同等质量的评估。本文给出了使用血清标志物替代传统评估可能节省的成本估计,并认为这些节省的规模值得开展一项随机对照试验。