Quality of life valuations of HPV-associated cancer health states by the general population.

OBJECTIVES: To obtain health-related quality of life valuations (ie, utilities) for human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancer health states of vulval, vaginal, penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancers for use in modelling cost-effectiveness of prophylactic HPV vaccination. METHODS: Written case descriptions of each HPV-associated cancer describing the 'average' patient surviving after the initial cancer diagnosis and treatment were developed in consultation with oncology clinicians. A general overview, standard gamble questionnaire for each health state and a quiz was conducted in 120 participants recruited from the general population. RESULTS: In the included population sample (n=99), the average age was 43 years (range = 18-70 years) with 54% men, 44% never married/43% married, 76% education beyond year 12 and 39% employed full-time. The utility values for the five health states were 0.57 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.62) for anal cancer, 0.58 (0.53 to 0.63) for oropharyngeal cancer, 0.59 (0.54 to 0.64) for vaginal cancer, 0.65 (0.60 to 0.70) for vulval cancer and 0.79 (0.74 to 0.84) for penile cancer. Participants demonstrated a very good understanding of the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of these cancers with a mean score of 9 (SD=1.1) on a 10-item quiz. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides utility estimates for the specific HPV-related cancers of vulval, vaginal, penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancers valued by a general population sample using standard gamble. The results demonstrate considerable quality of life impact associated with surviving these cancers that will be important to incorporate into modelling cost-effectiveness of prophylactic HPV vaccination in different populations.

Retrospective study of survival and treatment pattern in a cohort of patients with oral and oropharyngeal tongue cancers from 1987 to 2004.

This is a retrospective study of patients with oral and oropharyngeal tongue cancers who presented to the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) from 1987 to 2004. The aims of this study were to determine sociodemographic and tumour characteristics, treatment patterns and five-year disease-specific survival of the disease. All cases of tongue cancers, including untreated and palliative cases, were identified through the Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Registry and were included in statistical analysis. A total of 212 cases of tongue cancer were identified. Patients less than 45 years of age accounted for 15% of cases and had a tendency to present with advanced stage disease. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common histological type. Almost 30% of recorded cases were oropharyngeal or base of tongue cancers. Nearly half of the patients had advanced stage (III and IV) disease at presentation, which was significantly associated with rural area of residence, base of tongue sub-site and early diagnostic period. Treatment involved a multidisciplinary approach and majority of patients were treated with a curative intent. Palliative treatment was more likely to be given to patient with oropharyngeal tongue cancers or advance stage disease. There was no significant improvement of five-year disease-specific survival over the 18-year period. Poorer survival was significantly associated with age 45 years or older, oropharyngeal tongue cancers and advanced stage disease. Tongue cancer is an important health issue associated with poor survival. Early detection and diagnosis is important in order to improve survival rate for this malignancy.

Effect of using multiple culture media for the diagnosis of noninvasive fungal sinusitis.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to assess the relative efficiency of three different culture media for isolating fungi in patients suspected of having noninvasive fungal sinusitis. METHODS: A prospective study was performed of 209 operative samples of sinus "fungal-like" mucin from 134 patients on 171 occasions and processed for microscopy and fungal culture in Sabouraud's dextrose agar, potato dextrose agar, and broth media. RESULTS: Ninety-three (69%) of 134 patients had evidence of fungal infection. Two-thirds of patients had negative microscopy samples yet 56% of these went on to positive cultures. Forty-five percent cultured Aspergillus genus. Discrepancy between the fungi cultured in different media and on different occasions was common. With a single culture medium up to 19% of patients and 15% of samples would have been falsely labeled fungal negative. CONCLUSION: Increasing the number and type of fungal culture media used increases the number and range of fungal isolates from mucin in patients with the features of fungal sinusitis. Negative specimen microscopy is unreliable. All specimens should be cultured in multiple media and on multiple occasions when fungal sinusitis is suspected.

Multiplanar reconstructed computed tomography images improves depiction and understanding of the anatomy of the frontal sinus and recess.

AIMS: The use of multiplanar reconstructed computed tomography (CT) images of frontal recess and sinuses was assessed with regard to depiction and understanding of anatomy and effect on surgical approach. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three otorhinolaryngologists and one radiologist read CT scans of 43 patients referred for routine paranasal sinus scans. Spiral (helical) CT scans were obtained and coronal and parasagittal reconstructions were imaged. Three hundred forty-two readings were analyzed. The scans were assessed in the coronal plane and then in the parasagittal plane. The images were assessed for (i) Bent and Kuhn classification of frontal ethmoidal sinus air cells, (ii) size of frontal sinus ostium (assessed as unsure, normal, small, or large), (iii) use of parasagittal scans regarding additional understanding of the anatomy with particular reference as to how the agger nasi cell and frontal ethmoidal cells were arranged in a three-dimensional space, and (iv) if the parasagittal scan and subsequent three-dimensional picture created altered the surgical approach. The first two criteria were assessed in the coronal plane and then in the parasagittal plane. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between the Bent and Kuhn classification of frontoethmoidal cells on coronal and reconstructed parasagittal images (t-test; p > 0.05). The parasagittal scans were significantly better than the coronal scans for identifying and assessing the size of the frontal sinus ostium (p < 0.001; chi-square test). Assuming an intraobserver change rate (repeat error) of 10% on CT scan observations, an exact binomial test was performed on S-PLUS, which showed that there was a significant (p < 0.001) proportion of observers who changed their rating after looking at the parasagittal scan. There also was significant improvement in observers' abilities to identify and classify the size of the frontal ostium as reflected by the number of observers who changed from being unsure on the coronal scans to sure on the parasagittal scans. Observers felt that the parasagittal scans improved their three-dimensional understanding of the anatomy of the frontal recess by 58% on a 10-point Lickert scale. In 55% of these observations, the surgical plan was altered by a mean of 70.2% on a 10-point Lickert scale based on additional information obtained by viewing the parasagittal scans. CONCLUSIONS: The three-dimensional understanding of the frontal recess is improved greatly by using both coronal and parasagittal reconstructed images as compared with coronal images alone. This had important implications on the planning of the surgery in the frontal recess.