Understanding Teamwork in the Provision of Cancer Care: Highlighting the Role of Trust

Team science research has indicated that trust is a critical variable of teamwork, contributing greatly to a team’s performance. Trust has long been examined in health care with research focusing on the development of trust by patients with their health care practitioners. Studies have indicated that trust is linked to patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment, continuity of care, and improved outcomes. We explore the construct of trust using a case example of a patient who received a surgical procedure for a precancerous polyp. We apply the principle of trust to the case as well as present the literature on trust and key definitions for understanding trust. Additionally, we apply the definitions presented to the specific case example by highlighting moments where trust is developed or violated. Lastly, we offer insights to health care practitioners on the development of trust in their own patient interactions to improve care

Risk Factors Including Age, Stage and Anatomic Location that Impact the Outcomes of Patients with Synovial Sarcoma

Synovial sarcoma is a high-grade soft tissue sarcoma that inflicts mostly children and young adults with high mortality rate; however, the risk factors that impact the outcomes remain incompletely understood. We have identified the synovial sarcoma cases from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California cancer registry between 1981 and 2014. Kaplan–Meier plots were used to display disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS); log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the impact of clinical factors on DFS, OS, and disease-specific survival. Tumor size > 5.0 cm and age > 50 years were associated with higher risk of presenting with stage IV disease. Median OS for patients with stage IV was 1.3 years and 7.8 years for early-stage disease. For patients with early-stage disease, tumor size > 5.0 cm was significantly associated with worse DFS, sarcoma-specific morality, and OS. Compared to extremity primary, patients with head and neck and trunk primary had approximately three-fold higher sarcoma-specific mortality and lower OS. There was no significant difference in DFS or OS among three histologic subtypes. Pre-operative and/or post-operative chemotherapy was not associated with improvement in DFS or OS. Twenty-six patients relapsed with predominantly lung metastasis, thirteen of whom received metastatectomy with a median OS of 7.8 years, compared to 2.3 years for patients who did not receive metastatectomy. In conclusion, age older than 50 years and tumor size > 5.0 cm are risk factors for presenting with stage IV disease. For early-stage patients, trunk and head and neck primary as well as tumor size > 5.0 cm are risk factors for decreased OS

Mechanisms of Primary and Secondary Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPis) have revolutionized cancer therapy with broad activities against a wide range of malignancies. However, in many malignancies their efficacy remains limited due to the primary resistance. Furthermore, a high percentage of patients develop progression due to the secondary resistance even after obtaining a response or achieving a stable disease. In this review, we will discuss the mechanisms that underlie the primary and secondary resistance to ICPis in cancer immunotherapy and provide an overview to impart a broad understanding of the critical issues that are encountered in clinical oncology practice

Managerial overconfidence and corporate takeovers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model the announcement returns of merging firms based on managerial overconfidence about merger synergy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies continuous-time real options techniques and game theoretic concepts. Managerial overconfidence and strategic interaction between the bidder and the target are incorporated into the model. Findings – This model implies that: abnormal returns to bidding shareholders will be negative with a high degree of managerial overconfidence; combined returns to shareholders are usually positive; and both the bidder's and the target's abnormal returns are related to industry characteristics, the degree of managerial overconfidence, and the way merger synergies are divided. Originality/value – This paper, for the first time, reconciles theoretically the following stylized facts: combined returns to shareholders are usually positive; and returns to the acquirer are, on average, not positive. In addition, the model generates new predictions relating these returns to industry characteristics and the degree of managerial overconfidence.Acquisitions and mergers, Managers, Returns, Take-overs

Expropriation: Evidence from Rights Issues in China

This paper examines the expropriation of tradable shareholders in rightsissuing firms with the split share structure in China. Using a sample of 444 rights issues from 1999 to 2004, we find that the change in wealth of tradable shareholders is negatively correlated with the change in wealth of nontradable shareholders, consistent with an expropriation effect. Additional evidence indicates that the expropriation effect in rights issues is exacerbated when the firm is not ultimately controlled by the government, the nontradable shareholders do not subscribe the shares of rights issues, or the firm has a large second-largest shareholder.China rights issues, corporate governance, expropriation, split share structure, state-owned enterprise,

Do government provided credit ratings enhance or impede a firm\u27s access to trade credit?

The Chinese tax authority assigns a credit rating to a firm by evaluating its tax compliance. This paper investigates whether a higher credit rating provided by the government (e.g., rating A-level versus rating non-A-level) enhances a firm\u27s access to trade credit. Using a unique database manually collected from China, we find that firms with an A-level rating are able obtain more trade credit from their suppliers compared with non-A-level firms. Our findings suggest that social trust and media attention are two plausible channels for the government\u27s credit rating effect. We also find that this effect is stronger when firms are not rated by a credit rating agency, when firms receive lower credit ratings from a credit rating agency, when firms have a weaker information environment and when firms are non-SOEs. Finally, we find that firms that receive higher credit ratings from the government also provide more trade credit to their customers. Overall, our study shows that government can play a vital role in disseminating credible information to stakeholders when credit rating agencies are less reliable in emerging market countries

Private Versus State Ownership and Spillover of Investor Protection Standards in Interprovince Mergers: Evidence from China's Emerging Market

This paper examines the spillover effects of investor protection standards for interprovince mergers in China's emerging markets. Using a sample of 372 mergers, we find that if the provincial investor protection of the acquirer is better than that of the target, a privately owned acquirer will get significantly higher abnormal returns, whereas a local state-owned acquirer will not. Additional evidence indicates that in contrast to the crossborder acquirers or the private acquirers, the local state-owned acquirers in interprovince mergers come from provinces with worse fiscal conditions and prefer to acquire targets in provinces with better investor protection or fiscal conditions.interprovince mergers, investor protection, state-owned acquirers,

WIPF1 antagonizes the tumor suppressive effect of miR-141/200c and is associated with poor survival in patients with PDAC

Abstract Background Aberrant expression of Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein interacting protein family member 1 (WIPF1) contributes to the invasion and metastasis of several malignancies. However, the role of WIPF1 in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains poorly understood. Methods Human pancreatic cancer samples from PDAC patients were collected for methylation analysis. Bioinformatic prediction program and luciferase reporter assay were used to identify microRNAs regulating WIPF1 expression. The association between WIPF1 expression and the overall survival (OS) of patients with PDAC was evaluated by using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The roles of miR-141/200c and WIPF1 on the invasion and metastasis of PDAC cells were investigated both in vitro and in vivo. Results We found that compared to the surrounding non-cancerous tissues, there was significantly increased methylation of miR-200c and miR-141 in human PDAC tissues that resulted in their silencing, whereas the members of the other cluster of miR-200 family including miR-200a, miR-200b and miR-429 were hypomethylated. Our data show that forced expression of miR-141 or miR-200c suppressed invasion and metastasis of PDAC cells both in vitro and in xenograft and identified WIPF1 as a direct target of miR-141 and miR-200c. Both miR-141 and miR-200c inhibit WIPF1 by directly interacting with its 3′-untranslated region. Remarkably, silencing of WIPF1 blocked PDAC growth and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo, whereas forced WIPF1 overexpression antagonized the tumor suppressive effect of miR-141/200c. Additionally, by using TCGA database we showed that high expression of WIPF1 correlated with poor survival in patients with PDAC. Moreover, we show that miR-141 and miR-200c blocked YAP/TAZ expression by suppressing WIPF1. Conclusions We have identified WIPF1 as an oncoprotein in PDAC and a direct target of miR-141/miR-200c. We have also defined the miR-141/200c-WIPF1-YAP/TAZ as a novel signaling pathway that is involved in the regulation of the invasion and metastasis of human PDAC cells