Docetaxel with prednisone or prednisolone for the treatment of ...

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Glossary and list of abbreviations
Glossary continued
happen – anything from 2.5 times as likely to
3.8 times as likely. It is statistically significant.
On the other hand, RR = 3.0 (95% CI: 0.5 to
8.9) means that it is also estimated to be three
times as likely, but it is not statistically
significant. The chances go from half as likely
to happen (0.5 a decreased chance) to nearly
nine times as likely to happen (8.9 an increased
chance).
Relative risk reduction (RRR) Alternative
way of expressing relative risk. It is calculated
as RRR = (1 – RR) × 100% The RRR can be
interpreted as the proportion of the initial or
baseline ‘risk’ which was eliminated by a given
treatment or intervention, or by avoidance of
exposure to a risk factor.
Recurrent disease Disease that reappears
after a period during which it has shown no
measurable/detectable signs.
Risk difference The difference (absolute) in
the proportion with the outcome between the
treatment and control groups. If the outcome
represents an adverse event and the risk
difference is negative (below zero), this
suggests that the treatment reduces the risk –
referred to as the absolute risk reduction.
Salvage therapy Any therapy given in the
hope of getting a response when the ‘standard’
therapy has failed. This may overlap with
‘second-line’ therapy, but could also include
therapy given for patients with refractory
disease, i.e. disease that has never responded
to first-line therapy.
Second-line therapy The second
chemotherapy regimen administered either as
a result of relapse after first-line therapy or
immediately following on from first-line
therapy in patients with progressive or stable
disease. Depending on the circumstances,
patients may be treated with the same regimen
again or a different regimen. In either case this
is defined as second-line therapy.
Stable disease No change or less than a 25%
change in measurable lesions for at least
4–8 weeks with no new lesions appearing.
Staging The allocation of categories to
tumours, defined by internationally agreed
criteria. Tumour stage is an important
determinant of treatment and prognosis.
Stomatitis Inflammation/ulceration of the
mouth.
Taxane naïve Patients who had not received
a taxane as part of first-line therapy.
Thrombocytopenia An abnormally low level
of platelets in the blood. Platelets play a role in
the blood clotting process.
Time to progression The length of time
from the start of treatment (or time from
randomisation within the context of a clinical
trial) until tumour progression.
Utility A measure of the strength of an
individual’s preference for a given health state
or outcome. Utilities assign numerical values
on a scale from 0 (death) to 1 (optimal or
‘perfect’ health), and provide a single number
that summarises health-related quality of life.
Hence utility has been described as a global
measure of health-related quality of life.
Sometimes ‘utility’ is only used to refer to
preferences (on the 0–1 scale) that are elicited
using methods which introduce risky scenarios
to the respondent (standard gamble), with the
term ‘values’ used to refer to other type of
preferences.
Values An alternative measure of the strength
of an individual’s preference for a given health
state or outcome. In contrast to utilities, values
reflect preferences elicited in a risk-less
context.