Cross-oncopanel study reveals high sensitivity and accuracy with overall analytical performance depending on genomic regions

BackgroundTargeted sequencing using oncopanels requires comprehensive assessments of accuracy and detection sensitivity to ensure analytical validity. By employing reference materials characterized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-led SEquence Quality Control project phase2 (SEQC2) effort, we perform a cross-platform multi-lab evaluation of eight Pan-Cancer panels to assess best practices for oncopanel sequencing.ResultsAll panels demonstrate high sensitivity across targeted high-confidence coding regions and variant types for the variants previously verified to have variant allele frequency (VAF) in the 5-20% range. Sensitivity is reduced by utilizing VAF thresholds due to inherent variability in VAF measurements. Enforcing a VAF threshold for reporting has a positive impact on reducing false positive calls. Importantly, the false positive rate is found to be significantly higher outside the high-confidence coding regions, resulting in lower reproducibility. Thus, region restriction and VAF thresholds lead to low relative technical variability in estimating promising biomarkers and tumor mutational burden.ConclusionThis comprehensive study provides actionable guidelines for oncopanel sequencing and clear evidence that supports a simplified approach to assess the analytical performance of oncopanels. It will facilitate the rapid implementation, validation, and quality control of oncopanels in clinical use.Peer reviewe

Impacts of adaptation and responsibility framings on attitudes towards climate change mitigation

It is likely that climate change communications and media coverage will increasingly stress the importance of adaptation, yet little is known about whether or how this may affect attitudes towards mitigation. Despite concerns that communicating adaptation could undermine public support for mitigation, previous research has found it can have the opposite effect by increasing risk salience. It is also unclear whether people respond differently to information about mitigation and adaptation depending on whether action is framed as an individual or government responsibility. Using an experimental design, this study sought to examine how public attitudes towards mitigation are influenced by varying climate change messages, and how this might interact with prior attitudes to climate change. UK-based participants (N = 800) read one of four texts in a 2 × 2 design comparing adaptation versus mitigation information and personal versus governmental action. No main effect was found for adaptation versus mitigation framing, nor for individual action versus government policy, but we did observe a series of interaction effects with prior attitudes to climate change. Mitigation and adaptation information affected participants’ responses differently depending on their pre-existing levels of concern about climate change, suggesting that mitigation framings may be more engaging for those with high levels of concern, whereas adaptation framings may be more engaging for low-concern individuals. Government mitigation action appears to engender particularly polarised attitudes according to prior concern. Implications for climate change communications are considered

Precautionary behavior and willingness to pay for a mortality risk reduction: Searching for the expected relationship

Value of a statistical life, Stated preference, Risk behavior, D6, D8, I1,

Give PrEP a chance: moving on from the "risk compensation" concept

International audienceIntroduction: While bio-behavioural interventions (BIs) for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV prevention have shown their effectiveness (e.g. treatment for syphilis, HPV vaccination or pre-exposure prophylaxis [PrEP]), they have also aroused major concerns regarding behavioural changes that could counteract their benefit. Risk compensation (RC) fears concerning BIs in the HIV/STIs prevention field are intimately linked to representations, judgements and social control on sexual behaviour. With an increasing number of PrEP studies describing a rise in STIs due to RC, this paper argues for a shift away from the focus on RC and proposes a more constructive approach to respond to the needs of people living with HIV and populations most at risk. Discussion: The concept of RC, stemming from road safety and derived from economic theory, relies on rational theoretical models of human behaviour. Although widely applied in several contexts its use has been reasonably questioned. Major methodological issues regarding RC have been raised within HIV/AIDS literature. Although behavioural changes (e.g. condomless sex and number of sexual partners) are often erroneously assimilated with RC, there is no evidence that behavioural changes have undermined the effectiveness of previous and current BIs. Still, PrEP has not escaped RC concerns. Increases in condomless sex within the context of growing uptake of PrEP signals a continued need for integrated and innovative HIV and STI prevention strategies and a comprehensive sexual health approach. Routine HIV/STI testing, peer-led counselling, and identification of sexual health needs within the PrEP model of care could become a gold standard in the sexual health field for all populations. Conclusions: RC remains a frequent argument against the availability and provision of prevention methods for vulnerable populations. Individuals should be able to benefit from the full panel of BIs options available, to find and adapt methods according to their needs. Current, past and future PrEP users, with other stakeholders, may provide valuable insight into innovative solutions and programmes to control HIV and other STIs