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Biomedical subjects

Karol Sikora

Publications and source records attributed to Karol Sikora.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

The economics of cancer care in the UK.

Cancer care accounts for an increasing proportion of global spending on healthcare, driven by an increased incidence caused by ageing populations, greater frequency from better treatments, and changes in care that have made cancer a chronic, controllable illness. The cost of cancer care has three components: direct and easily determined clinical costs (ie, medical costs); extra financial requirement of living with disease for the patient and their family (ie, morbidity costs); and loss of income from the premature death (ie, mortality costs). Effective planning of cancer services needs detailed consideration of the economics of care delivery-an area of research that has so far been lacking outside the USA. Here, we review the literature and attempt to answer key questions on the economics of cancer care, including probable changes in disease burden over the next 20 years, changes in the way costs will be distributed between carers and delivery services, changing patterns of service delivery, and the direct contribution patients will make to treatment costs in terms of co-payments and escalating costs of comorbidity in elderly populations.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Prevention.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Health Promotion↗
PubMed2004

Chemotherapy.

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Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMed2002

Surrogate endpoints in cancer drug development.

Over the next three years a large number of novel, mechanistically targeted drugs will enter clinical trials for cancer. The remarkable progress in understanding the molecular biology of cancer has provided an enormous range of validated targets for drug discovery. Following lead optimisation and suitable pharmaceutical formulation these compounds have undergone rapid screening in preclinical models. Innovative methods of clinical development are now essential to ensure optimal dose determination and scheduling. The discovery of novel surrogates for efficacy is essential in this fast moving area and requires imaginative partnerships between academic groups and the pharmaceutical industry.

Antineoplastic Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of future technology on cancer care.

Globally cancer will increase greatly over the next 20 years because of ageing populations. Minimally invasive surgery will reduce the need for routine organ resection. The application of sophisticated computer systems to radiotherapy planning will allow the precise shaping of beam delivery conforming exactly to the shape of the tumour. The most promising advances will come from the rapidly increasing understanding of the molecular genetics of cancer. This will have considerable impact on prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment and lead to a golden age of drug discovery. Individual cancer risk assessment will provide messages tailored for individual prevention and have far-reaching public health consequences. Increased consumerism in medicine will produce increasingly informed and assertive patients seeking out novel therapies, bypassing traditional referral pathways through global information networks. This will bring new ethical and moral dilemmas. The cancer future will be created by the interaction of four complex factors: technological success, society's willingness to pay, future healthcare delivery systems and the financial mechanisms that underpin them.

Biomedical Technology↗