26 research outputs found

    Patient and Physician Willingness to Use Personal Health Records in the Emergency Department

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    Introduction: Patient care in the emergency department (ED) is often complicated by the inability to obtain an accurate prior history even when the patient is able to communicate with the ED staff. Personal health records (PHR) can mitigate the impact of such information gaps. This study assesses ED patients’ willingness to adopt a PHR and the treating physicians’ willingness to use that information.Methods: This cross-sectional study was answered by 184 patients from 219 (84%) surveys distributed in an academic ED. The patient surveys collected data about demographics, willingness and barriers to adopt a PHR, and the patient’s perceived severity of disease on a 5-point scale. Each patient survey was linked to a treating physician survey of which 210 of 219 (96%) responded.Results: Of 184 surveys completed, 78% of respondents wanted to have their PHR uploaded onto the Internet, and 83% of providers felt they would access it. Less than 10% wanted a software company, an insurance company, or the government to control their health information, while over 50% wanted a hospital to control that information. The patients for whom these providers would not have used a PHR had a statistically significant lower severity score of illness as determined by the treating physician from those that they would have used a PHR (1.5 vs 2.4, P, 0.01). Fifty-seven percent of physicians would only use a PHR if it took less than 5 minutes to access.Conclusion: The majority of patients and physicians in the ED are willing to adopt PHRs, especially if the hospital participates. ED physicians are more likely to check the PHRs of more severely ill patients. Speed of access is important to ED physicians. [West J Emerg Med. 2012;13(2):172–175.

    Imaging the Urokinase Plasminongen Activator Receptor in Preclinical Breast Cancer Models of Acquired Drug Resistance

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    Subtype-targeted therapies can have a dramatic impact on improving the quality and quantity of life for women suffering from breast cancer. Despite an initial therapeutic response, cancer recurrence and acquired drug-resistance are commonplace. Non-invasive imaging probes that identify drug-resistant lesions are urgently needed to aid in the development of novel drugs and the effective utilization of established therapies for breast cancer. The protease receptor urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) is a target that can be exploited for non-invasive imaging. The expression of uPAR has been associated with phenotypically aggressive breast cancer and acquired drug-resistance. Acquired drug-resistance was modeled in cell lines from two different breast cancer subtypes, the uPAR negative luminal A subtype and the uPAR positive triple negative subtype cell line MDA-MB-231. MCF-7 cells, cultured to be resistant to tamoxifen (MCF-7 TamR), were found to significantly over-express uPAR compared to the parental cell line. uPAR expression was maintained when resistance was modeled in triple-negative breast cancer by generating doxorubicin and paclitaxel resistant MDA-MB-231 cells (MDA-MB-231 DoxR and MDA-MB-231 TaxR). Using the antagonistic uPAR antibody 2G10, uPAR was imaged in vivo by near-infrared (NIR) optical imaging and (111)In-single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Tumor uptake of the (111)In-SPECT probe was high in the three drug-resistant xenografts (> 46 %ID/g) and minimal in uPAR negative xenografts at 72 hours post-injection. This preclinical study demonstrates that uPAR can be targeted for imaging breast cancer models of acquired resistance leading to potential clinical applications

    Imaging the urokinase plasminongen activator receptor in preclinical breast cancer models of acquired drug resistance

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    Subtype-targeted therapies can have a dramatic impact on improving the quality and quantity of life for women suffering from breast cancer. Despite an initial therapeutic response, cancer recurrence and acquired drug-resistance are commonplace. Non-invasi

    Targeting uPAR with Antagonistic Recombinant Human Antibodies in Aggressive Breast Cancer

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    Components of the plasminogen activation system (PAS) which are overexpressed in aggressive breast cancer subtypes offer appealing targets for development of new diagnostics and therapeutics. By comparing gene expression data in patient populations and cultured cell lines, we identified elevated levels of the urokinase plasminogen activation receptor (uPAR, PLAUR) in highly aggressive breast cancer subtypes and cell lines. Recombinant human anti-uPAR antagonistic antibodies exhibited potent binding in vitro to the surface of cancer cells expressing uPAR. In vivo these antibodies detected uPAR expression in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumor xenografts using near infrared (NIR) imaging and (111)In single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Antibody-based uPAR imaging probes accurately detected small disseminated lesions in a tumor metastasis model, complementing the current clinical imaging standard (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) at detecting non-glucose-avid metastatic lesions. A monotherapy study using the antagonistic antibodies resulted in a significant decrease in tumor growth in a TNBC xenograft model. Additionally, a radioimmunotherapy (RIT) study, using the anti-uPAR antibodies conjugated to the therapeutic radioisotope (177)Lu, found that they were effective at reducing tumor burden in vivo. Taken together, our results offer a preclinical proof of concept for uPAR targeting as a strategy for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy using this novel human antibody technology
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