Some people with tuberculosis face barriers and may require assistance with care. For these populations, the use of support workers may be helpful for engaging patients and promoting treatment compliance. The purpose of this report is to identify and describe the strategies that support workers use to support tuberculosis treatment in people who require additional assistance with care.
We describe treatment outcomes and considerations important to people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Canada, as shared in patient input given for past Canada's Drug Agency Reimbursement Reviews. Diabetes Canada, Type 2 Diabetes Experience Exchange, and Patient Commando worked with us to create this report.
The class of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors is an integral part of the management of type 2 diabetes. This review will assess the evidence regarding the clinical effectiveness and harms of SGLT2 inhibitors compared to other glucose lowering drugs in adults with type 2 diabetes. The focus of the report will be on summarizing and appraising recent (from 2020 to present) systematic reviews with meta-analyses.
Reason: This project was turned into a Streamlined Review (TS002), which has now been completed.
This review identified limited evidence regarding the clinical effectiveness and safety of bevacizumab for patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis after radiosurgery. These identified studies had several limitations, most notably due to the limited number of studies with control groups; therefore, the findings related to the effectiveness and safety in this population are uncertain.
For adult patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis, treatment with bevacizumab may be associated with radiographic responses, a reduction in volumetric outcomes, an improvement in overall clinical and neurologic symptoms, an improvement in functional outcomes, and a reduction in corticosteroid use.
Limited evidence from 1 study suggests that treatment with bevacizumab may be associated with greater radiographic response, a reduction in volumetric outcomes, and clinical symptom improvement compared to treatment with corticosteroids. The recurrence of brain radionecrosis for patients who received bevacizumab compared to corticosteroids was similar between groups.
Commonly reported adverse events after patients with symptomatic brain radionecrosis were treated with bevacizumab included hypertension, proteinuria, edema, pulmonary embolism, and various thromboembolic events.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic immune-mediated disease of the central nervous system, in which the immune system causes an inflammatory response that damages or destroys myelin, axons, and oligodendrocytes. Damaged myelin forms scar tissue (sclerosis) that replaces the myelin and, as a result, nerve impulses transmitted to and from the brain and spinal cord are distorted or interrupted, producing a variety of symptoms.
The clinical effectiveness of oseltamivir for the prevention of influenza in residents of long-term care facilities compared to no prophylaxis is unclear. The evidence we identified is inconclusive due to limitations in the quality of studies.
We did not find any evidence on the safety of oseltamivir for preventing influenza in long-term care facilities.
We did not find any studies on the clinical effectiveness or safety of oseltamivir prophylaxis in long-term care facilities compared to placebo.
Pediatric low-grade glioma (pLGG) is the most common type of solid tumour of the central nervous system in pediatrics, with an estimated Canadian incidence of 1.41 cases per 100,000 person years. Some children with pLGG can be cured with surgery, depending on the location and features of the tumour. However, many children will experience a chronic disease course requiring chemotherapy and/or targeted treatments, and sometimes radiotherapy. Treatment of this condition is associated with challenges for patients, their families, and the health system.
Canada's Drug Agency is undertaking an Environmental Scan of specialized clinics and health care professional resources for post–COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID) in Canada. This project is being conducted to help support jurisdictions in exploring, planning, and assessing needs by providing an overview about different approaches being implemented across the country, as well as resources in development.
The key objectives of this Environmental Scan are to:
This review identified limited evidence regarding the clinical effectiveness of raltitrexed for patients who had previously experienced adverse events following treatment with fluoropyrimidines. These studies had several limitations, most notably lacking a separate control group; therefore, the effectiveness of raltitrexed in this population is uncertain.
Limited evidence was found about the safety of raltitrexed for patients who had previously experienced adverse events with fluoropyrimidine treatment. Reported adverse events included cardiac or vascular adverse events, anemia, and nausea and vomiting. No treatment-associated deaths were reported in the studies included in this review.
No studies were identified that compared the clinical effectiveness of raltitrexed to other therapies, placebo, or no treatment comparator groups for treatment of patients who had experienced adverse events from fluoropyrimidine therapy.
This review identified evidence for people who had previously experienced severe adverse events, primarily cardiotoxicity, following treatment with fluoropyrimidines. It is unclear if these findings are appliable to patients with a complete dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase deficiency.