AcroQoL questionnaire is a valid tool for the assessment of HRQoL in clinical practice in patients with acromegaly.

Caregivers of AP suffer a negative impact on their health state and HRQoL; the time they dedicate to the patient is very high.

BackgroundRotavirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. The aim of the study was to assess the health outcomes and the economic impact of a universal rotavirus vaccination programme with RotaTeq, the pentavalent rotavirus vaccine, versus no vaccination programme in Spain.MethodsA birth cohort was followed up to the age of 5 using a cohort model. Epidemiological parameters were taken from the REVEAL study (a prospective epidemiological study conducted in Spain, 2004-2005) and from the literature. Direct and indirect costs were assessed from the national healthcare payer and societal perspectives by combining health care resource utilisation collected in REVEAL study and unit costs from official sources. RotaTeq per protocol efficacy data was taken from a large worldwide rotavirus clinical trial (70,000 children). Health outcomes included home care cases, General Practioner (GP)/Paediatrician, emergency department visits, hospitalisations and nosocomial infections.ResultsThe model estimates that the introduction of a universal rotavirus vaccination programme with RotaTeq (90% coverage rate) would reduce the rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) burden by 75% in Spain; 53,692 home care cases, 35,187 GP/Paediatrician visits, 34,287 emergency department visits, 10,987 hospitalisations and 2,053 nosocomial infections would be avoided. The introduction of RotaTeq would avoid about 76% of RVGE-related costs from both perspectives: €22 million from the national health system perspective and €38 million from the societal perspective.ConclusionsA rotavirus vaccination programme with RotaTeq would reduce significantly the important medical and economic burden of RVGE in Spain.

Background: Second-line (2 L) chemotherapies for advanced or metastatic gastric cancer have shown improved survival but there is no commonly accepted standard of care. This study examines real-world patient characteristics, treatment patterns, healthcare resource use (HCRU) and clinical outcomes in this setting. Methods: Retrospective chart reviews were performed at participating institutions from Australia, Canada, Italy and UK for adult patients receiving 2 L treatment for advanced/metastatic disease from January 2013 to July 2015. Data were collected for 12 months or until death. Results: Two hundred eighty patients were included, mean age was 60.9 years and 68.9% were male. Half (51.8%) received monotherapy in 2 L, of whom 69.0% received taxanes. Irinotecan monotherapy was common in Australia (30.0% of monotherapy patients) and Canada (43.8%), but infrequent in Italy and UK. Doublet chemotherapy was used in 36.4% of 2 L patients, most commonly fluoropyrimidine + irinotecan. Use of targeted therapies (trastuzumab, ramucirumab) was infrequent except in Italy. Estimated median real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS) and real-world overall survival (rwOS) from the time of 2 L treatment initiation was 3.09 (95% CI: 2.76-3.68) and 6.54 (5.29-7.76) months, respectively, and estimated 12-month rwPFS and rwOS rate was 8 and 26%, respectively. Only a minority (26.8%) of patients were hospitalized during the follow-up period, with the lowest hospitalization in Italy (16.7%). Laboratory and imaging tests were performed for 93.2 and 70.4%, respectively. Conclusions: About half of patients received monotherapy as 2 L chemotherapy for advanced/metastatic gastric cancer and a third received doublets. Real-world clinical outcomes for 2 L treatment are poor and HCRU is considerable.

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