The 17-Gene Genomic Prostate Score Assay Is Prognostic for Biochemical Failure in Men With Localized Prostate Cancer After Radiation Therapy at a Community Cancer Center.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess the association between the Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score (GPS) assay and long-term outcomes in men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) after radiation therapy (RT). We hypothesized that the GPS assay is prognostic for biochemical failure (BCF), along with distant metastasis (DM) and PCa-specific mortality in patients with PCa receiving RT.

Methods And Materials: We retrospectively studied men with localized PCa treated with definitive RT at Georgia Urology from 2010 to 2016.

Using Oncotype DX breast recurrence score® assay to define the role of neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in early-stage hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

Purpose: The role of neoadjuvant endocrine therapy in the treatment of patients with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive (HR +) breast cancer is not well defined. Tools to better determine which patients may benefit from neoadjuvant endocrine therapy versus chemotherapy or upfront surgery remain an unmet need.

Methods: We assessed the rate of clinical and pathologic complete response (cCR, pCR) among a pooled cohort of patients with early-stage HR + breast cancer who had been randomized to neoadjuvant endocrine therapy or neoadjuvant chemotherapy in two earlier studies to understand better how outcomes varied by Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score® assay.

Predicting Survival in Patients With Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: The REVEAL Risk Score Calculator 2.0 and Comparison With ESC/ERS-Based Risk Assessment Strategies.

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a progressive, fatal disease. Published treatment guidelines recommend treatment escalation on the basis of regular patient assessment with the goal of achieving or maintaining low-risk status. Various strategies are available to determine risk status.

Association of High-Dose Ibuprofen Use, Lung Function Decline, and Long-Term Survival in Children with Cystic Fibrosis.

Rationale: Cystic fibrosis deaths result primarily from lung function loss, so chronic respiratory therapies, intended to preserve lung function, are cornerstones of cystic fibrosis care. Although treatment-associated reduction in rate of lung function loss should ultimately improve cystic fibrosis survival, no such relationship has been described for any chronic cystic fibrosis therapy. In part, this is because the ages of most rapid lung function decline-early adolescence-precede the median age of cystic fibrosis deaths by more than a decade.

More than a decade follow-up in patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma: The Epidemiology and Natural History of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens (TENOR) II.

Background: The Epidemiology and Natural History of Asthma: Outcomes and Treatment Regimens (TENOR I) study demonstrated high morbidity in patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma despite standard-of-care treatment.

Objective: We sought to determine the long-term natural history of disease and outcomes in patients in TENOR I after more than a decade.

Methods: TENOR I was a multicenter observational study (2001-2004) of 4756 patients with severe or difficult-to-treat asthma.

Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second Variability Helps Identify Patients with Cystic Fibrosis at Risk of Greater Loss of Lung Function.

Objective: To evaluate several alternative measures of forced expiratory volume in 1 second percent predicted (FEV1 %pred) variability as potential predictors of future FEV1 %pred decline in patients with cystic fibrosis.

Study Design: We included 13,827 patients age ≥6 years from the Epidemiologic Study of Cystic Fibrosis 1994-2002 with ≥4 FEV1 %pred measurements spanning ≥366 days in both a 2-year baseline period and a 2-year follow-up period. We predicted change from best baseline FEV1 %pred to best follow-up FEV1 %pred and change from baseline to best in the second follow-up year by using multivariable regression stratified by 4 lung-disease stages.

Prognostic implications of serial risk score assessments in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: a Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management (REVEAL) analysis.

Background: Data from the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management (REVEAL) were used previously to develop a risk score calculator to predict 1-year survival. We evaluated prognostic implications of changes in the risk score and individual risk-score parameters over 12 months.

Methods: Patients were grouped by decreased, unchanged, or increased risk score from enrollment to 12 months.

Four- and seven-year outcomes of patients with congenital heart disease-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (from the REVEAL Registry).

Uncorrected congenital heart disease (CHD) frequently leads to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), the most severe form of which is Eisenmenger syndrome (ES). We compared patients with idiopathic or heritable PAH (IPAH or HPAH; n = 1,626) against those with CHD-associated PAH (n = 353) who were enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL Registry). Of patients with CHD-associated PAH, 151 had ES.

Risk assessment in pulmonary hypertension associated with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is common in patients with left heart failure (HF), especially those with HF and preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, there is limited data on risk stratification in these patients.

Methods: Baseline clinical and hemodynamic variables of 339 patients with World Health Organization (WHO) Group 2 PH, 90% of whom had HFpEF, were studied to derive a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model.

Treadmill testing improves survival prediction models in pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: Six-minute walk distance (6MWD) is used in the REVEAL equation to predict 1-year survival for patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. We sought to determine whether exercise treadmill testing (ETT) could be used in its place.

Methods: This was a single-center study in which 449 patients were enrolled.

Survival in childhood pulmonary arterial hypertension: insights from the registry to evaluate early and long-term pulmonary arterial hypertension disease management.

Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but important cause of morbidity and mortality in children.

Methods And Results: We analyzed data from 216 patients ≤18 years of age at diagnosis who were enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL). Median age at diagnosis and enrollment was 7 and 15 years, respectively.

The REVEAL Registry risk score calculator in patients newly diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Background: In pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), survival predictions can be important for optimization of therapeutic strategies. The present study aimed to validate a quantitative algorithm for predicting survival derived from the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL Registry) and develop a simplified calculator for everyday clinical use.

Methods: Prospectively collected data from patients with newly diagnosed (< 3 months) World Health Organization group I pulmonary hypertension enrolled in the REVEAL Registry were used to validate a predictive algorithm for 1-year survival.

REVEAL Registry: correlation of right heart catheterization and echocardiography in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Cardiopulmonary hemodynamics are estimated by Doppler echocardiogram (ECHO) and measured by right heart catheterization (RHC) in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Whether there is a correlation between these measurements is controversial. The authors investigated ECHO and RHC in patients enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL), a multicenter, observational, US-based study designed to provide current information about patients with PAH.

Comparison of body habitus in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term PAH Disease Management with normative values from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Objective: To investigate the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and pulmonary artery systolic pressure in a large population of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Patients And Methods: The BMI of patients with group 1 PAH enrolled in the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL) was compared with that of age- and sex-matched controls in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to clarify whether obesity is linked with PAH. The diagnosis of PAH was defined in REVEAL by right-sided heart catheterization.

Predicting survival in pulmonary arterial hypertension: insights from the Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Disease Management (REVEAL).

Background: Factors that determine survival in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) drive clinical management. A quantitative survival prediction tool has not been established for research or clinical use.

Methods And Results: Data from 2716 patients with PAH enrolled consecutively in the US Registry to Evaluate Early and Long-Term PAH Disease Management (REVEAL) were analyzed to assess predictors of 1-year survival.

Trends in medical care expenditures of US adults with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions 1997 to 2005.

Objective: To examine trends in annual medical expenditures from 1997 to 2005 among adults with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions (denoted Arthritis group).

Methods: We analyzed annual medical expenditures (2005 US dollars) among adults with Arthritis using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative survey of the US civilian, noninstitutionalized population. Expenditures were stratified by Arthritis and comorbidity status.

Estimating the prevalence and economic burden of overactive bladder among Medicare beneficiaries prior to Medicare Part D coverage.

Objective: The goal of this study is to provide annual estimates for the treated prevalence and expenditures attributable to overactive bladder (OAB) in the elderly prior to Medicare Part D drug coverage.

Research Design And Methods: All Medicare claims were extracted for beneficiaries over 65 with continuous coverage for Medicare Parts A and B during 2003-2004. Two OAB definitions were created: (1) the base case included diagnosis codes that narrowly defined OAB, and (2) the sensitivity variant included additional codes indicative of OAB.

Development of a fatigue and functional impact scale in anemic cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Background: This study was conducted to develop a brief measure of fatigue and functional impact in cancer patients with anemia.

Methods: Data were obtained from a multisite, phase 2 study of darbepoetin-alpha (n = 1,558). Eligible patients were >or=18 years with nonmyeloid malignancies and anemia (hemoglobin View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Medical care expenditures and earnings losses among persons with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in 2003, and comparisons with 1997.

Objective: To obtain estimates of medical care expenditures and earnings losses associated with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions and the increment in such costs attributable to arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in the US in 2003, and to compare these estimates with those from 1997.

Methods: Estimates for 2003 were derived from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS), a national probability sample of households. We tabulated medical care expenditures of adult MEPS respondents, stratified by arthritis and comorbidity status, and used regression techniques to estimate the increment of medical care expenditures attributable to arthritis and other rheumatic conditions.