Organization of medical service of Bjelovar Medical centre during homeland\u27s war

Događanja u pakračko-daruvarskom, grubišno-poljskom, te bilogorskom kraju, u Medicinskom centru Bjelovar ispravno su procijenjena. Transformacija mirnodopskog zdravstva u ratni sanitet s odgovarajućim stručnim ljudskim potencijalom, donekle zaštićenim radnim prostorima, omogućili su nam da svoju glavnu ulogu, liječenje ranjenika, učinimo na najbolji mogući način, držeći se načela moderne medicinske znanosti.The war events in the Pakrac, Daruvar and Grubišno Polje region as well as in the Bilogora area are correctly estimated in Medical Centre Bjelovar. The transformation from civil to war medicine with appropriate expert teams working in relatively protected parts of the hospital has enabled us to provide adequate medical care and treatment of the wounded, according to the principles of the modern medicine

Analysis of the frequency of EGFR, KRAS and ALK mutations in patients with lung adenocarcinoma in Croatia

BACKGROUND: Many studies have been published on the mutational status of patients with lung adenocarcinomas, and great population-based variability in mutation frequencies has been reported. The main objective of the present study was to analyze the EGFR, KRAS and ALK mutation status in a representative cohort of patients in Croatia with lung adenocarcinomas and to correlate the mutational status with clinical data. ----- METHODS: All patients who were newly diagnosed within 6 months with histologically proven primary lung adenocarcinomas were included. Mutational analyses for EGFR and KRAS mutations were performed in a cobas z 480 analyzer. ALK immunohistochemistry was performed using the D5F3 clone on Benchmark XT instrument. Clinical data were obtained from the medical records. ----- RESULTS: Of the 324 patients, 59.9 % were male. At the time of diagnosis, the patients ranged in age range from 35 to 88 years (median 63 years). Most of the patients were current smokers or former smokers (77.2 %). EGFR mutations were found in 15.7 % of the patients, and of these mutations, exon 19 deletion was the most common (45.1 %). KRAS mutations were present in 34.9 % of the patients, while 4.1 % of patients were ALK-positive. The statistical significance of the presence of mutations was detected for both gender and smoking. ----- CONCLUSION: The detected mutation rates demonstrated a slightly higher prevalence of KRAS mutations, but not a higher prevalence of EGFR mutations or ALK gene rearrangement, in comparison with the rates found in other European countries. EGFR and ALK mutational status showed a statistically significant correlation with gender as well as with smoking, while KRAS mutation status showed a statistically significant correlation only with smoking

Lung cancer biomarker testing : perspective from Europe

A questionnaire on biomarker testing previously used in central European countries was extended and distributed in Western and Central European countries to the pathologists participating at the Pulmonary Pathology Society meeting 26-28 June 2019 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Each country was represented by one responder. For recent biomarkers the availability and reimbursement of diagnoses of molecular alterations in non-small cell lung carcinoma varies widely between different, also western European, countries. Reimbursement of such assessments varies widely between unavailability and payments by the health care system or even pharmaceutical companies. The support for testing from alternative sources, such as the pharmaceutical industry, is no doubt partly compensating for the lack of public health system support, but it is not a viable or long-term solution. Ideally, a structured access to testing and reimbursement should be the aim in order to provide patients with appropriate therapeutic options. As biomarker enabled therapies deliver a 50% better probability of outcome success, improved and unbiased reimbursement remains a major challenge for the future