Implementing Outcomes-Based Managed Entry Agreements for Rare Disease Treatments: Nusinersen and Tisagenlecleucel

Enthusiasm for the use of outcomes-based managed entry agreements (OBMEAs) to manage uncertainties apparent at the time of appraisal/pricing and reimbursement of new medicines has waned over the past decade, as challenges in establishment, implementation and re-appraisal have been identified. With the recent advent of innovative treatments for rare diseases that have uncertainties in the…

Public health policies for the common interest: rethinking EU states’ incentives strategies when a pandemic reshuffles all interests

The paper “Should governments buy the drug patents?” published 13 years ago in this same journal [1] reflected on aspects that have become relevant again, both for good and bad reasons. The last 60 years have seen huge advances in many of the scientific, technological, and managerial factors that raises the efficiency of commercial medicines research…

Factors associated with serum ferritin levels and iron excess: results from the EPIC-EurGast study

Purpose Excess iron is involved in the development of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular conditions. We aimed to describe the prevalence of excess iron and its determinants in healthy European adults. Methods Sociodemographic, lifestyle, iron status, dietary information, and HFE genotyping were obtained from controls from the nested case–control study…

Circulating tryptophan metabolites and risk of colon cancer: results from case-control and prospective cohort studies

Dysregulation of tryptophan metabolism has been linked to colorectal tumorigenesis, however, epidemiological studies investigating tryptophan metabolites in relation to colorectal cancer risk are limited. We studied associations of plasma tryptophan, serotonin, and kynurenine with colon cancer risk in two studies with cancer patients and controls, and in one prospective cohort: ColoCare Study (110 patients/153 controls),…

Consideraciones de seguridad en la prescripción de medicamentos antiinflamatorios no esteroideos (AINEs), a través de una revisión de revisiones sistemáticas

Los medicamentos antiinflamatorios no esteroideos (AINEs) se encuentran entre los medicamentos más consumidos mundialmente. Esto hace necesario realizar una síntesis amplia de la evidencia disponible sobre la prescripción segura y adecuada de AINEs en pacientes con enfermedad cardiovascular, enfermedad renal crónica, hipertensión, insuficiencia cardíaca o cirrosis hepática y en población general. Para ello se ha…

Inflammatory potential of the diet and risk of breast cancer in the European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study

The role of chronic inflammation on breast cancer (BC) risk remains unclear beyond as an underlying mechanism of obesity and physical activity. We aimed to evaluate the association between the inflammatory potential of the diet and risk of BC overall, according to menopausal status and tumour subtypes. Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and…

Associations between dietary amino acid intakes and blood concentration levels

Background and aims Emerging evidence suggests a role of amino acids (AAs) in the development of various diseases including renal failure, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and cancer. However, mechanistic pathways and the effects of dietary AA intakes on circulating levels and disease outcomes are unclear. We aimed to compare protein and AA intakes, with their respective…

Prospective analysis of circulating metabolites and endometrial cancer risk

Background Endometrial cancer is strongly associated with obesity and dysregulation of metabolic factors such as estrogen and insulin signaling are causal risk factors for this malignancy. To identify additional novel metabolic pathways associated with endometrial cancer we performed metabolomic analyses on pre-diagnostic plasma samples from 853 case-control pairs from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer…

Geographical Variability in Mortality in Urban Areas: A Joint Analysis of 16 Causes of Death

The geographical distribution of mortality has frequently been studied. Nevertheless, those studies often consider isolated causes of death. In this work, we aim to study the geographical distribution of mortality in urban areas, in particular, in 26 Spanish cities. We perform an overall study of 16 causes of death, considering that their geographical patterns could…