The World Trade Center Health Program: Cancer screening and cancer care best practices.

The events of September 11, 2001 (9/11) exposed nearly a half million persons to many carcinogenic chemicals and dusts, as well as psychological and physical stressors. Subsequent epidemiologic studies of 9/11-exposed persons have suggested elevated risks for some cancers, e.g., prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and melanoma. To detect cancer at an early stage, the US Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening certain asymptomatic persons for lung, colorectal, cervical and breast cancer, but not for other cancers. High quality cancer diagnosis and treatment guidelines are available from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the National Cancer Institute. For enrolled members, the WTC Health Program provides coverage for cancer screening and diagnosis, and covers medically necessary treatment costs for all types of cancer, assuming 9/11-exposure and minimum latency requirements are met, and a Program-affiliated physician attests that 9/11 exposures were substantially likely to have been a significant factor in aggravating, contributing to, or causing the enrolled WTC member's cancer.

Cost effectiveness of rasagiline and pramipexole as treatment strategies in early Parkinson's disease in the UK setting: an economic Markov model evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Levodopa is the most effective treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, after an initial period of benefit, several limitations become apparent, including motor complications such as dyskinesia. Dyskinesia can severely affect patients' quality of life and increases healthcare resource use. Thus, delaying the need for levodopa, and therefore the onset of levodopa-induced dyskinesia, is important. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the cost effectiveness, from a UK healthcare payer perspective, of two antiparkinsonian treatment strategies in early PD: first-line monotherapy with rasagiline, a novel monoamine oxidase B inhibitor; and the non-ergoline dopamine receptor agonist pramipexole. METHODS: An economic Markov model was developed as a pragmatic tool to derive comparative information on the effectiveness, utility and costs of these two strategies over a 5-year period. Model input data were obtained from the TEMPO study for rasagiline and from a study by the Parkinson Study Group for pramipexole. Effectiveness outcomes were time to levodopa and time to levodopa-induced dyskinesia. Cost and quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) data were derived from published sources. RESULTS: Rasagiline was the dominant strategy. Compared with pramipexole, use of the rasagiline strategy was estimated to reduce costs by 18% per patient over 5 years and was associated with an additional 10% delay in dyskinesia onset (0.41 years; 95% CI 0.27, 0.55). This strategy was also found to prolong the time to levodopa initiation by 25% through a gain of 0.83 levodopa-free years (95% CI 0.56, 1.1). In addition, use of the rasagiline strategy was found to generate a 5% gain in QALYs over 5 years compared with the pramipexole strategy (3.7 +/- 0.02 vs 3.51 +/- 0.03). Sensitivity analyses confirmed that the model was robust. CONCLUSIONS: Rasagiline represents a cost-effective alternative to pramipexole in the treatment of early PD in the UK.