Sexual Function in Women with Breast Cancer : An Evidence Map of Observational Studies

Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer in women, and has implications for sexual function (SF). In this study, we used an evidence map to identify, describe, and organise the current available evidence regarding SF in women with BC. We searched the MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and CINAHL databases for observational studies assessing SF in women with BC published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French between 2000 and 2021 (sample ≥ 50 women). Of the 64 included studies (13,257 women with BC), 58 were published since 2010. Women who were married, partnered, or in relationships represented 74.1% of the entire sample. Only a single study was conducted on women representing a sexual minority. We identified 22 assessment instruments and 40 sexual dysfunction (SdF) domains. The number of publications on SF in women with BC has increased in the last 10 years, but still remains low. Some groups of women are underrepresented, and some SdF domains are underdiagnosed, with the assessment instrument used affecting which domains are studied. Women with BC need to be better screened, as their quality of life (QoL) is affected by Sd

A randomised trial of the effect of postal reminders on attendance for breast screening

This study was supported financially by National Cancer Screening Programmes. Stephen Duffy contributed to this study as part of the programme of the Policy Reminders and breast screening attendance BRITISH JOURNAL OF CANCER www.bjcancer.com | DOI:10.1038/bjc.2015.451 175 Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, which receives funding for a research programme from the Department of Health Policy Research Programme, grant number 106/0001. It is a collaboration between researchers from seven institutions (Queen Mary University of London, UCL, King’s College London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Hull York Medical School, Durham University and Peninsula Medical School

Bladder cancer index: cross-cultural adaptation into Spanish and psychometric evaluation

BACKGROUND: The Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) is so far the only instrument applicable across all bladder cancer patients, independent of tumor infiltration or treatment applied. We developed a Spanish version of the BCI, and assessed its acceptability and metric properties. METHODS: For the adaptation into Spanish we used the forward and back-translation method, expert panels, and cognitive debriefing patient interviews. For the assessment of metric properties we used data from 197 bladder cancer patients from a multi-center prospective study. The Spanish BCI and the SF-36 Health Survey were self-administered before and 12 months after treatment. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed through the multi-trait multi-method matrix. The magnitude of change was quantified by effect sizes to assess responsiveness. RESULTS: Reliability coefficients ranged 0.75-0.97. The validity analysis confirmed moderate associations between the BCI function and bother subscales for urinary (r = 0.61) and bowel (r = 0.53) domains; conceptual independence among all BCI domains (r ≤ 0.3); and low correlation coefficients with the SF-36 scores, ranging 0.14-0.48. Among patients reporting global improvement at follow-up, pre-post treatment changes were statistically significant for the urinary domain and urinary bother subscale, with effect sizes of 0.38 and 0.53. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish BCI is well accepted, reliable, valid, responsive, and similar in performance compared to the original instrument. These findings support its use, both in Spanish and international studies, as a valuable and comprehensive tool for assessing quality of life across a wide range of bladder cancer patients

La neuro-réflexothérapie pour la lombalgie non spécifique

La neuro-réflexothérapie, dispensée dans des cliniques spécialisées en Espagne, semble réduire la douleur et l'invalidité chez les patients souffrant de lombalgie chronique non spécifique. Les cliniciens utilisent un large éventail de traitements dans le cadre de la prise en charge de la lombalgie. Il n'y a souvent que peu d'indications scientifiques qu'ils marchent ou qu'ils puissent être utiles pour une population plus large. Dans cette revue, la neuro-réflexothérapie a obtenu de meilleurs résultats que le placebo et que les soins standard. Toutefois, jusqu'à ce que la recherche parvienne à reproduire ces résultats dans des contextes différents, il n'existe aucune preuve solide que cela fonctionne aussi bien en dehors des cliniques spécialisées en Espagne

Evidence mapping and quality assessment of systematic reviews on therapeutic interventions for oral cancer

Meisser Madera Anaya,1–3 Juan Victor Ariel Franco,4 Mónica Ballesteros,2 Ivan Solà,2,3 Gerard Urrútia Cuchí,2,3 Xavier Bonfill Cosp2,3,5 1Department of Research, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia; 2Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre, Institute of Biomedical Research Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), Barcelona, Spain; 3Department of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; 4Department of Research, Cochrane Argentina, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 5CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain Purpose: This evidence mapping aims to describe and assess the quality of available evidence in systematic reviews (SRs) on treatments for oral cancer. Materials and methods: We followed the methodology of Global Evidence Mapping. Searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Epistemonikos and The Cochrane Library were conducted to identify SRs on treatments for oral cancer. The methodological quality of SRs was assessed using the Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews-2 tool. We organized the results according to identified Population–Intervention–Comparison–Outcome (PICO) questions and presented the evidence mapping in tables and a bubble plot. Results: Fifteen SRs met the eligibility criteria, including 118 individual reports, of which 55.1% were randomized controlled clinical trials. Ten SRs scored “Critically low” methodological quality. We extracted 30 PICOs focusing on interventions such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy; 18 PICOs were for resectable oral cancer, of which 8 were reported as beneficial. There were 12 PICOs for unresectable oral cancer, of which only 2 interventions were reported as beneficial. Conclusion: There is limited available evidence on treatments for oral cancer. The methodological quality of most included SRs scored “Critically low”. The main beneficial treatment reported by authors for patients with resectable oral cancer is surgery alone or in combination with radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Evidence about the benefits of the treatments for unresectable oral cancer is lacking. These findings highlight the need to address future research focused on new treatments and knowledge gaps in this field, and increased efforts are required to improve the methodology quality and reporting process of SRs on treatments for oral cancer. Keywords: mouth neoplasms, oral carcinoma, buccal tumor, evidence synthesis, evidence-based medicin

F-18 PET ligands for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia and other dementias in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

•National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), UK. This protocol was supported by the NIHR, via Cochrane Infrastructure funding to the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement group