Implications of Cancer Staging Uncertainties in Radiation Therapy Decisions

Abstract

The authors find a small but nontrivial probability that breast cancer patients will be incorrectly staged and thus may be subjected to inappropriate treatment. Results are sensitive to a number of variables, and some routinely used tests for metastasis have very limited information value. This work has implications for the methods used in cancer staging, and the methods are generalizable for quantitative risk assessment of treatment errors.

Uncertainty in Breast, Prostate, and Colorectal Cancer: Implications for Supportive Care

“…An intervention study was conducted with colorectal cancer patients to support their adjustment to the disease situation (Lee et al, 2006). A series of meaning‐oriented, clinical interventions ( n =8) were offered to breast and colorectal cancer patients and a purposive sample of 21 patients was obtained.…”

Estimating the consequences of wildfire for wildfire risk assessment, a case study in the southern Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada

“…The term ''fire risk'' is often used to mean the probability of a fire (e.g., Haight et al 2004;Fiorucci et al 2008;National Wildfire Coordinating Group 2008); however, within the broader field of risk assessment, ''risk'' is defined as the probability of an event multiplied by the consequences associated with the event (i.e., fire probability  fire consequences) (e.g., Finney 2005). The probability  consequences definition of risk is used in quantitative risk assessment (QRA) and has been applied successfully in such fields as health sciences (Lee et al 2006), environmental engineering (Bernatik et al 2008), conflict resolution (Maguire and Boiney 1994), and wildlife conservation (Drechsler 2000). QRA has been found useful because it promotes (i) a better understanding of accident scenarios, (ii) a better understanding of the complex interactions between events and systems, (iii) communication among stakeholders and a common understanding of the problem, and (iv) an integrated approach that allows researchers to combine contributions from diverse disciplines such as forestry, biology, and the social sciences (Apostolakis 2004).…”

“…A quantitative approach such as MAUT or MDC provides a method to elicit the opinions of stakeholders in a consistent and repeatable manner when multiple values at risk are present. The output of the method is easily incorporated into the probability  consequences approach to risk assessment (e.g., Maguire and Boiney 1994;Drechsler 2000;Lee et al 2006;Bernatik et al 2008). A quantitative approach is especially useful when the consequences must be elicited from expert or stakeholder opinion because they do not naturally occur in easily convertible measurement units such as replacement cost.…”

Influence Diagram for Selection of Pedagogical Strategies in a Multi-Agent System Learning

“…Recent work has shown the viability in the use of ID in processes where variables are uncertain and decisions need to be taken starting from the probabilistic dependency in a flux of information as, for instance, in the Medical field [3][4][5], the Communication area in multi-agent systems (MAS) [6,7], and Risk Evaluation [8].…”