European journal of cancer : official journal for European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [and] European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)
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Various centralised mammography screening programmes have shown to reduce breast cancer mortality at reasonable costs. However, mammography screening is not necessarily cost-effective in every situation. Opportunistic screening, the predominant screening modality in several European countries, may under certain circumstances be a cost-effective alternative. In this study, we compared the cost-effectiveness of both screening modalities in Switzerland. ⋯ Although data on the performance of opportunistic screening are limited, both opportunistic and organised mammography screening seem effective in reducing breast cancer mortality in Switzerland. However, for opportunistic screening to become equally cost-effective as organised screening, costs and use of additional diagnostics should be reduced.
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Paclitaxel is a commonly used anticancer drug, but it frequently causes peripheral neuropathy. Neurotropin, a non-protein extract from inflamed rabbit skin inoculated with vaccinia virus, has been used to treat various chronic painful conditions. In the present study, we investigated the effect of neurotropin on the paclitaxel-induced neuropathy in rats. ⋯ Furthermore, neurotropin ameliorated the paclitaxel-induced axonal degeneration in cultured PC12 and rat dorsal root ganglion cells, and in rat sciatic nerve. In addition, neurotropin did not affect the microtubule aggregation or anti-tumour effect induced by paclitaxel in the tumour cell lines or tumour cells-implanted mice. These results suggest that neurotropin reverses the paclitaxel-induced neuropathy without affecting anti-tumour activity of paclitaxel, and therefore may be useful for the paclitaxel-induced neuropathy in clinical settings.