270 research outputs found
Effect of the patient information brochure in communicating the risks associated with crizotinib treatment to patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Europe
Crizotinib (XALKORI®) is indicated for anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive and ROS1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer. This study evaluated the distribution of the crizotinib patient information brochure (PIB) in Europe and patient knowledge of the key messages in the PIB. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 10 European countries among patients who received crizotinib to ascertain whether each patient received and read the PIB, and his/her knowledge of its key messages on hepatotoxicity, interstitial lung disease/pneumonitis, QTc prolongation, bradycardia, and vision disorders. Of the 341 patients contacted, 40 responded (11.7%), and 39 patients were eligible. A total of 77% of respondents acknowledged receiving the PIB, of which, 93% reported reading it. Knowledge of the individual side effects ranged from 36% to 85%, and precautions for use ranged from 56% to 67%. Understanding the reasons for calling a physician ranged from 54% to 85%. Knowledge of each of the 6 key side effects was greater among readers of the PIB compared to non-readers or respondents who did not recall receiving the PIB. Approximately three-quarters of survey respondents recalled receiving the crizotinib PIB and respondents who read the PIB were more knowledgeable of the key side effects of crizotinib than those who did not read or receive. Caution should be taken in generalizing these results because of the potential for selection bias and small sample size. These survey results suggest that the crizotinib PIB may be an effective risk communication tool for crizotinib-treated patients in Europe
Beobachtungsstudie ärztlicher und pflegerischer Aktivitäten in der Notaufnahme
Background!#!Comprehensive and systematic assessments of nurse and physician activities in the emergency department (ED) are lacking for German-speaking countries.!##!Objectives!#!Assessment of work activities of ED nurses and physicians with particular focus on frequencies of direct patient contact as well as rates of activity changes.!##!Material and methods!#!We employed standardized assessments of work activities using participant observations (90 min each) among nurses and physicians during their regular shifts. The setting was an interdisciplinary ED of a Southern German academic hospital. Observed activities were classified according to an established system and recorded with time stamps. Overall, 160 observation sessions were conducted (with an observation time of approximately 240 h; 99 among nurses, 61 among physicians).!##!Results!#!Physicians spent 30% of their working time in direct patient contact, nurses 44%. Concerning individual activities, the largest proportions of physicians' work time were allocated to documentation and writing (29.3%), communication with ED staff (16.9%) and patients (13.6%). Nurses were engaged in therapeutic and treatment activities (27.6%) and internal communication (17.9%) most of the time. Individual activities were highly fragmented: On average, we recorded 41.3 activities per hour with an average duration of 1.5 min. Nurses had significantly shorter activity durations than ED physicians (F[df = 1] = 4.5, p = 0.04). Activity-specific subanalyses revealed differences that could be attributed to professional roles in ED work.!##!Conclusion!#!Our results provide reliable and comprehensive insights into the distribution and duration of physician and nurse activities in clinical care in a German ED. Future work and design projects should focus particularly on effects of ED work time allocation on performance and work stress of ED staff as well as on safety and quality of ED patient care
The photometric properties of a vast stellar substructure in the outskirts of M33
We have surveyed sq.degrees surrounding M33 with CFHT MegaCam in the
g and i filters, as part of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey. Our
observations are deep enough to resolve the top 4mags of the red giant branch
population in this galaxy. We have previously shown that the disk of M33 is
surrounded by a large, irregular, low-surface brightness substructure. Here, we
quantify the stellar populations and structure of this feature using the PAndAS
data. We show that the stellar populations of this feature are consistent with
an old population with dex and an interquartile range in
metallicity of dex. We construct a surface brightness map of M33 that
traces this feature to mags\,arcsec. At these low surface
brightness levels, the structure extends to projected radii of kpc from
the center of M33 in both the north-west and south-east quadrants of the
galaxy. Overall, the structure has an "S-shaped" appearance that broadly aligns
with the orientation of the HI disk warp. We calculate a lower limit to the
integrated luminosity of the structure of mags, comparable to a
bright dwarf galaxy such as Fornax or AndII and slightly less than $1\$ of the
total luminosity of M33. Further, we show that there is tentative evidence for
a distortion in the distribution of young stars near the edge of the HI disk
that occurs at similar azimuth to the warp in HI. The data also hint at a
low-level, extended stellar component at larger radius that may be a M33 halo
component. We revisit studies of M33 and its stellar populations in light of
these new results, and we discuss possible formation scenarios for the vast
stellar structure. Our favored model is that of the tidal disruption of M33 in
its orbit around M31.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 figures. ApJ preprint forma
Algebraic varieties with automorphism groups of maximal rank
We confirm, to some extent, the belief that a projective variety X has the
largest number (relative to the dimension of X) of independent commuting
automorphisms of positive entropy only when X is birational to a complex torus
or a quotient of a torus. We also include an addendum to an early paper though
it is not used in the present paper.Comment: Mathematische Annalen (to appear
Microwave Surface Impedance of YBCO:123 crystals: Experiment and comparison to a d-wave model
We present measurements of the microwave surface resistance Rs and the
penetration depth lambda of YBCO:123 crystals. At low T obeys lambda(T) a
polynomial behavior, while Rs displays a characteristic non-monotonic
T-dependence.
A detailed comparison of the experimental data is made to a model of d-wave
superconductivity which includes both elastic and inelastic scattering. While
the model reproduces the general features of the experimental data, three
aspects of the parameters needed are worth noting. The elastic scattering rate
required to fit the data is much smaller than measured from the normal state,
the scattering phase shifts have to be close to pi/2 and a strong coupling
value of the gap parameter 2\Delta(0)/kTc = 6 is needed. On the experimental
side the uncertainties regarding the material parameters lambda(0) and
Rs,res(0) further complicate a quantitative comparison.
For one sample does Rs,res(0) agree with the intrinsic value which results
from the d-wave model.Comment: uuencoded tar.Z, 11 pages with 5 figures, used style files: elsart
and graphicx, PS-file available at http://sagar.cas.neu.edu/preprints.htm
Expression of chemokine receptor CXCR4 in esophageal squamous cell and adenocarcinoma
BACKGROUND: Prognosis of esophageal cancer is poor despite curative surgery. The chemokine receptor CXCR4 has been proposed to distinctly contribute to tumor growth, dissemination and local immune escape in a limited number of malignancies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the role of CXCR4 in tumor spread of esophageal cancer with a differentiated view of the two predominant histologic types – squamous cell and adenocarcinoma. METHODS: Esophageal cancer tissue samples were obtained from 102 consecutive patients undergoing esophageal resection for cancer with curative intent. The LSAB+ System was used to detect the protein CXCR4. Tumor samples were classified into two groups based on the homogeneous staining intensity. A cut-off between CXCR4w (= weak expression) and CXCR4s (= strong expression) was set at 1.5 (grouped 0 – 1.5 versus 2.0 – 3). Long-term survival rates were calculated using life tables and the Kaplan-Meier method. Using the Cox's proportional hazards analysis, a model of survival prediction was established. RESULTS: The overall expression rate for CXCR4 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma was 94.1%. Subdividing these samples, CXCR4w was found in 54.9% and CXCR4s in 45.1%. In adenocarcinoma, an overall expression rate of 89.1% was detected with a weak intensitiy in 71.7% compared to strong staining in 29.3% (p = 0.066 squamous cell versus adenocarcinoma). The Cox's proportional hazards analysis identified the pM-category with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.860 (95% CI: 1.014–3.414) (p = 0.045), the histologic tumor type (HR: 0.334; 95% CI: 0.180–0.618) (p = 0.0001) and the operative approach (transthoracic > transhiatal esophageal resection) (HR: 0.546; 95% CI: 0.324–0.920) (p = 0.023) as independent factors with a possible influence on the long-term prognosis in patients with esophageal carcinoma, whereas CXCR4 expression was statistically not significant (>0.05). CONCLUSION: Expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 in esophageal cancer is of major relevance in both histologic entities – squamous cell and adenocarcinoma. Though with lack of statistical significance, strong CXCR4 expression revealed a poorer long-term prognosis following curative esophagectomy in both histologic subtypes. Thus, the exact biological functions of CXCR4 in terms of tumor dissemination of esophageal cancer is yet undetermined. Inhibition of esophageal cancer progression by CXCR4 antagonists might be a promising therapeutic option in the future
oA novel nonparametric approach for estimating cut-offs in continuous risk indicators with application to diabetes epidemiology
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Epidemiological and clinical studies, often including anthropometric measures, have established obesity as a major risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. Appropriate cut-off values for anthropometric parameters are necessary for prediction or decision purposes. The cut-off corresponding to the Youden-Index is often applied in epidemiology and biomedical literature for dichotomizing a continuous risk indicator.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Using data from a representative large multistage longitudinal epidemiological study in a primary care setting in Germany, this paper explores a novel approach for estimating optimal cut-offs of anthropomorphic parameters for predicting type 2 diabetes based on a discontinuity of a regression function in a nonparametric regression framework.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The resulting cut-off corresponded to values obtained by the Youden Index (maximum of the sum of sensitivity and specificity, minus one), often considered the optimal cut-off in epidemiological and biomedical research. The nonparametric regression based estimator was compared to results obtained by the established methods of the Receiver Operating Characteristic plot in various simulation scenarios and based on bias and root mean square error, yielded excellent finite sample properties.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is thus recommended that this nonparametric regression approach be considered as valuable alternative when a continuous indicator has to be dichotomized at the Youden Index for prediction or decision purposes.</p
A Chemocentric Approach to the Identification of Cancer Targets
A novel chemocentric approach to identifying cancer-relevant targets is introduced. Starting with a large chemical collection, the strategy uses the list of small molecule hits arising from a differential cytotoxicity screening on tumor HCT116 and normal MRC-5 cell lines to identify proteins associated with cancer emerging from a differential virtual target profiling of the most selective compounds detected in both cell lines. It is shown that this smart combination of differential in vitro and in silico screenings (DIVISS) is capable of detecting a list of proteins that are already well accepted cancer drug targets, while complementing it with additional proteins that, targeted selectively or in combination with others, could lead to synergistic benefits for cancer therapeutics. The complete list of 115 proteins identified as being hit uniquely by compounds showing selective antiproliferative effects for tumor cell lines is provided
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