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LETTERS: Hilary Calvert, Duncan I Jodrell, James Cassidy, Adrian L Harris, Andrea Messori, Sabrina Trippoli, Monica Vaiani, Silvio Garattini, and Vittorio Bertele' Efficacy, safety, and cost of new anticancer drugs BMJ 2002; 325: 1302a [Full text]

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Correction

Andrea Messori, Sabrina Trippoli, and Monica Vaiani   (29 November 2002)

CANCER SURVIVAL-A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

JEFF D. UPTON   (6 December 2002)

Correction 29 November 2002
Andrea Messori, coordinator Drug Information Centre, Azienda Ospedaliera Careggi, Florence, 50134, Sabrina Trippoli, and Monica Vaiani Send response to journal: Re: Correction	Dear Sir, In the editing process of our letter published in the 30 November issue (page 1302), our original figure has been rearranged (without informing us) and all horizontal lines have been converted into vertical lines. Unfortunately, the legend to this figure has not been changed accordingly by your editorial office and has therefore been published with two errors. The correct legend to this figure is as follows: “Innovative anticancer agents approved in Italy: comparison between price range or ‘negotiation window’ proposed by pharmacoeconomic algorithm (vertical line) and final price approved by the negotiation committee (circle)”. Thank you for considering this request of correction. Competing interests:   AM and ST have been paid by Eli Lilly and Pfizer for running educational workshops and have been participated in research projects funded by GlaxoWellcome, Sigma-tau, Aventis, and Eli Lilly. MV as acted as a consultant to GlaxoWellcome.
CANCER SURVIVAL-A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE 6 December 2002
JEFF D. UPTON, SENIOR HOSPITAL SCIENTIST MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY LABORATORY, CANTERBURY HEALTH LABS.,P.O. BOX 151, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND Send response to journal: Re: CANCER SURVIVAL-A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE	Editor-Perhaps Hilary Calvert et al might like to comment on the following: in 1997 my eldest sister died of advanced ovarian cancer (diagnosed 2 months previously) and last week I attended the funeral of the 50 year old wife of a medical colleague, also a death from ovarian cancer several months after diagnosis. I might also mention my former bookseller (peripheral T-cell lymphoma), a colleague's brother (colorectal cancer-epidemic in this country) and others too numerous to mention. In fact, the only person I know who has survived a solid tumour had surgery and chemotherapy for a seminoma several years ago. Testicular cancer, of course, now has an excellent prognosis, UNLIKE just about every other solid tumour. The grim reality, obvious to this observer, is that there has been virtually no change in long-term survival for solid tumours in the last 2 decades. As a meaningful point of comparison, one only has to look at how far therapy of HIV/AIDS has come since the initial description of the disorder in 1981. And to the public, and to this writer, the desired outcome is cure, not improved quality of life. Jeff D. Upton Competing interests:   None declared