Evaluating the Potential of Polygenic Risk Score to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening

Background: Colorectal cancer has high incidence and associ-ated mortality worldwide. Screening programs are recommended for men and women over 50. Intermediate screens such as fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) select patients for colonoscopy with suboptimal sensitivity. Additional biomarkers could improve the current scenario. Methods: We included 2,893 individuals with a positive FIT test. They were classified as cases when a high-risk lesion for colorectal cancer was detected after colonoscopy, whereas the control group comprised individuals with low-risk or no lesions. 65 colorectal cancer risk genetic variants were geno-typed. Polygenic risk score (PRS) and additive models for risk prediction incorporating sex, age, FIT value, and PRS were generated. Results: Risk score was higher in cases compared with controls [per allele OR = 1.04; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.02-1.06; P = 65), compared with those in the first decile (<= 54; OR = 2.22; 95% CI, 1.59-3.12; P < 0.0001). The model combining sex, age, FIT value, and PRS reached the highest accuracy for identifying patients with a high-risk lesion [cross-validated area under the ROC curve (AUROC): 0.64; 95% CI, 0.62-0.66]. Conclusions: This is the first investigation analyzing PRS in a two-step colorectal cancer screening program. PRS could improve current colorectal cancer screening, most likely for higher at-risk subgroups. However, its capacity is limited to predict colorectal cancer risk status and should be complemented by additional biomarkers.Impact: PRS has capacity for risk stratification of colorectal cancer suggesting its potential for optimizing screening strategies alongside with other biomarkers

Maternal educational level and preterm birth: Exploring inequalities in a hospital-based cohort study.

Preterm birth has been related to inequalities in maternal educational level, but the causal mechanism is not entirely known. Some factors associated with preterm birth and low educational level such as chronic medical conditions, pregnancy complications and related-health behaviours could have a mediation role in the pathway. This study aimed to evaluate the association between maternal educational level and preterm birth, analysing the mediation role of these factors. We performed a retrospective cohort study based on hospital electronic records of 10467 deliveries that took place in the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona between 2011 and 2017. Poisson regression was used to obtain crude and adjusted relative risk of preterm birth in women with different educational level and the percentage of change in relative risk was calculated when mediation variables were included in the model. Women with a lower educational level had a higher risk of preterm birth (RR 1.57, 95% CI 1.21, 2.03). The loss of association after the inclusion of body mass index in the model suggests an important mediation role of maternal overweight. Other variables such as smoking, drug use, preeclampsia and genitourinary infections also appear to play a role in the observed inequality between women with different levels of education. Efforts to promote health literacy and to improve preventive interventions, before and during pregnancy, could decrease preterm birth rates and perinatal health inequalities

Factores epidemiológicos asociados a incidentes de seguridad por comportamiento del paciente notificados en el medio hospitalario

Fundamentos: Los sistemas de notificación de incidentes son un elemento esencial en los programas de seguridad clínica. Nuestro objetivo fue describir la magnitud, evolución y características de acontecimientos adversos por comportamiento del paciente notificados en un hospital universitario de referencia de alta complejidad. Métodos: Estudio transversal. Periodo 2016-2019. Del registro hospitalario de acontecimientos adversos, se obtuvieron las notificaciones de taxonomía "Comportamiento del paciente". Se clasificaron según: tipo de comportamiento, categoría profesional del notificante, área asistencial, sexo del paciente/acompañante, riesgo y año. Se empleó el test χ² de comparación de variables y mediante un modelo lineal generalizado con distribución Poisson se estimaron razones de prevalencia (RP) e intervalos de confianza al 95% (IC95%). Resultados: Las notificaciones por comportamiento del paciente representaron el 8,2%. Hubo una tendencia creciente con una ligera disminución en el último año (2016 12,4%; 2017 29,5%; 2018 32,5% y 2019 25,6%). Las áreas de enfermedades neurológicas y psiquiátricas, y la de urgencias notificaron un 36,9% y 19,7% de los casos, respectivamente. Enfermería fue el estamento más notificador (73,2%). Más del 60% de notificaciones implicaron pacientes de sexo masculino. La RP se duplicó en fugas o tentativas (2,2; IC95%=1,4-3,5), triplicándose en incumplimiento de normas hospitalarias (3,0; IC95%=1,9-4,7) y conductas agresivas o intimidatorias (3,4; IC95%= 2,2-5,3). Hubo una tendencia creciente con una ligera disminución en el último año. Conclusiones: Se observa un incremento de notificaciones relacionados con conductas del paciente, con una ligera disminución el último año. Este estudio objetiva y caracteriza un problema ahora especialmente relevante por la influencia de la pandemia COVID-19 sobre la salud mental, que los programas de calidad y seguridad clínica deben considerar para minimizar los riesgos asociados

Prevalence of persistent pain after breast cancer treatment by detection mode among participants in population-based screening programs.

BACKGROUND: To date, the study of the risks and benefits of breast cancer screening has not included the onset of persistent pain after breast cancer treatment within the context of population-based screening programs. Our purpose was to investigate the prevalence of persistent pain and associated factors in women diagnosed with breast cancer (screening or interval) in the context of a population-based breast cancer screening program in Spain. METHODS: A total of 1,057 women participating in a population-based breast cancer screening program were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2000 and 2008. The women were treated surgically and followed-up to 2013. The risk of developing persistent pain was estimated through multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Breast cancer was detected during routine screening in 732 women (69.3 %) and emerged as an interval cancer between two screening rounds in 325 (30.7 %). Persistent pain was present in 118 women (11.3 %). Women diagnosed through routine screening reported a higher prevalence of persistent pain (12.9 %) than those with interval cancers (7.8 %)(P  =2 (Odds Ratio [OR]: 4.5 95 % Confidence Interval [CI]: 2.1-9.5) versus no comorbidities, and having undergone an axillary lymph node dissection (OR: 2.0 95 % CI: 1.0-4.0) versus sentinel lymph node biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of persistent pain was relatively low. The detection mode was not related to the onset of persistent pain. The factors associated with persistent pain were a Charlson index > =2 and the performance of axillary lymph node dissection. Women treated for breast cancer are at risk for developing persistent pain regardless of the detection mode, especially those with comorbidities and those who have undergone axillary lymph node dissection.This study was supported by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III FEDER (grant numbers: PS09/01153, PI12/00387, PI11/01296 and PI15/00098) and by the Research Network on Health Services in Chronic Diseases (REDISSEC: RD12/0001/0015)