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Background. Modest activity for doxorubicin has been detected repeatedly for the therapy of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Variable activity in this disease also has been documented for alpha‐interferon. Preclinical data indicated the possibility that alpha‐interferon could enhance or add to the cytotoxic effect of doxorubicin. Methods. The authors evaluated the use of alpha‐interferon at a dose of 12 × 106 units/m2/day for 5 days given by intramuscular injection plus doxorubicin 25–40 mg/m2 given intravenously on day 3 (both repeated every 4 weeks) for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Results. Among 31 eligible patients treated, there was only one instance of objective tumor regression. The median survival for all patients was 10 months. Both hematologic and nonhematologic toxicity were significant but tolerable to the patients. Conclusions. The 3% response rate indicated that, by the method used, the addition of alpha‐interferon to doxorubicin does not improve the clinical effectiveness. This combination cannot be recommended for further study.

This study established an effect size measure for differential functioning for items and tests' noncompensatory differential item functioning (NCDIF). The Mantel-Haenszel parameter served as the benchmark for developing NCDIF's effect size measure for reporting moderate and large differential item functioning in test items. The effect size of NCDIF is influenced by the model, the discrimination parameter, and the difficulty parameter. Therefore, tables of NCDIF's effect size were presented at given levels of , and parameters. In addition, a general effect size recommendation for moderate and large NCDIF is also established.

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No conclusions could be drawn regarding the therapeutic benefit of capecitabine monotherapy; RCTs are required. Capecitabine appeared cost-effective compared with vinorelbine, but serious doubts remain; the poor quality of the trials may invalidate this conclusion. Based on limited evidence, combination therapy was more effective than single-agent docetaxel and likely to be cost-effective, but was associated with higher incidences of hand-foot syndrome, nausea, diarrhoea and stomatitis.