[Evaluation of clinical practice in pulmonary oncology: a review of the literature].
BACKGROUND
Evaluation of clinical practice in pulmonary oncology aims to improve both the quality of care and the control of costs.


METHODS
A Medline search of the literature allowed analysis of the published studies of the evaluation of clinical practice. They showed that though 82-95% of patients with small cell bronchial carcinoma were treated with a combination of etoposide and cisplatin, less than half of the patients with non-small cell cancer received treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Various factors such as age, comorbidity, race, socio-economic status and gender affect the treatment decisions. There is also a discrepancy between the trial data and clinical practice that could be explained by two factors. On one hand advances are not always adopted by doctors and on the other hand the patient populations treated may sometimes be different from those in the trials.


CONCLUSIONS
Though the number of published studies is still low an increase is to be expected on account of the publication of new regulations concerning the evaluation of clinical practice and the appropriate use of drugs.
Debrix
I
I
Service de Pharmacie, Cancer Est, Hôpital Tenon, Paris, France. isabelle.debrix@tnn.ap-hop-paris.fr
Gounant
V
V
Milleron
B
B
D000367:Age Factors; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001984:Bronchial Neoplasms / Q000191:economics / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000191:economics / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005047:Etoposide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D039781:PubMed; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D005047:Etoposide; D002945:Cisplatin