1) Cohen J,  Looney W. What is the value of oncology medicines? Nature Biotechnology 2010; 28, 1160 – 1163,  doi:10.1038/nbt1110-1160

            “Coverage with evidence development (CED), rather than quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY) thresholds, offers the best way forward in balancing evidence-based policy for new oncology products with the needs of developers, payers, physicians and patients. Faced with balancing increasing demand with limited resources, payers must weigh the costs and benefits of different treatments in deciding which to cover and under what circumstances. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) seeks to bridge the evidence gap between what we know and what we do in medical care by informing this decision-making process.”

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v28/n11/full/nbt1110-1160.html

2) Beaglehole R, Horton R. Chronic diseases: global action must match global evidence. The Lancet, 376 (9753)1619 - 1621, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61929-0

            “In September, 2011, the UN will hold its first High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on chronic non-communicable diseases in New York. Billed as a once in a generation opportunity to put chronic diseases on global and national agendas, the UN meeting could achieve what this year's Millennium Development Goal Summit achieved—the launch of coherent strategies for action, securing broad political commitment, winning pledges of financing, and providing a stage for powerful international advocacy. The Series of papers we launch today is our contribution to preparations for the September meeting. We see the next 12 months as an unprecedented opportunity to change the conversation of global health, to rewrite the political manifesto for health to include one of the most neglected—and yet most important—categories of death and disability.”

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961929-0/fulltext?rss=yes

3)  Allotey P, Reidpath D, Yasin S, et al. Rethinking health-care systems: a focus on chronicity. The Lancet, Early Online Publication, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61856-9

            “Health-care systems, including those in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, face a crisis of an increasing burden of chronic disease aggravated by ageing populations and complicated by the continuing risks of infectious diseases and global pandemics. The issues for health-care systems in low-income and middle-income countries are compounded by persistent diseases of poverty, and the inadequately understood comorbidities of both infectious and non-communicable diseases.

The structure of health-care systems reflects an underlying understanding of health and disease in which acute episodes result in help-seeking, with the expected outcome of a cure or death. In this model, chronic conditions are treated as serial acute episodes with multiple interactions with the health-care system. As the capacity to manage acute phases of chronic conditions improves, disease prevalence rises, resulting in a financial burden that will begin to dwarf costs in other parts of the health system”.

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2961856-9/fulltext

4) Haidar C, Jeha S, Drug interactions in childhood cancer, The Lancet Oncology, doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(10)70105-4.

            “Children with cancer are increasingly benefiting from new treatment strategies and advances in supportive care, as shown by improvements in both survival and quality-of-life. However, the continuous emergence of new cancer drugs and supportive-care drugs has increased the possibility of harmful drug interactions; health-care providers need to be very cautious when combining drugs. We discuss the most common interactions between chemotherapeutic drugs and supportive-care drugs—such as anticonvulsants, antiemetics, uric-acid-lowering compounds, acid suppressants, antimicrobials, and pain-management medications in paediatric patients. We also review the interactions between chemotherapy drugs and food and herbal supplements, and provide recommendations to avoid unwanted and potentially fatal interactions in children with cancer. Because of the constant release of new drugs, health-care providers need to check the most recent references before making recommendations about drug interactions”.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20869315