Minerva

Most cases of non-small cell lung cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making it crucial to recruit these patients into clinical trials. Most trials require a clinician estimated life expectancy of more than three months, but doctors tend to be poor at predicting survival in such patients and lack guidelines for doing so, and consequently clinical studies may suffer from major selection bias (Oncologist 2010;15:782-9, doi:10.1634/theoncologist.2009-0149). Junior doctors were better than consultants at estimating patients’ survival time—possibly because juniors get to know the patients better, suggest the authors.

What’s the relation between obstructive sleep apnoea and incident coronary heart disease? A large prospective study of men and women older than 40 who were free of heart disease at the time of baseline sleep studies showed that obstructive sleep apnoea was a significant predictor of incident heart disease only in men younger than 70. Obstructive sleep apnoea also predicted heart failure in men, but not in women (Circulation 2010;122:352-60, doi:10.1161/circulationaha.109.901801).

Financial stability and …