Internet and social media use in cancer patients: association with distress and perceived benefits and limitations.

Objective: Cancer patients may turn to social media (SM) to cope with distress. We investigated associations between distress and internet/SM use for cancer information/support.

Methods: Adult patients at a Canadian cancer centre completed a cross-sectional survey on sociodemographics, health status, use of cancer online resources and distress (EQ5D-5L).

Health-related social media use and preferences of adolescent and young adult cancer patients for virtual programming.

Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer are increasingly using the internet and social media (SM) for cancer-related information. AYA face specific challenges and thus require tailored resources that meet their needs. We describe the internet and SM preferences of AYA related to their cancer information seeking behaviors and their preferences for a future resource compared to middle-aged adults (MAA).

"It's More Difficult…": Clinicians' Experience Providing Palliative Care to Adolescents and Young Adults Diagnosed With Advanced Cancer.

Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs; age 15-39 years) with advanced cancer are a population in whom quality of life is uniquely affected because of their stage of life. However, training focused on palliative care for AYAs is not routinely provided for health care providers (HCPs) in oncology. This study aims to explore the experiences of HCPs involved in introducing and providing palliative care caring for AYAs with advanced cancer and their families to understand the unique challenges HCPs experience.

Correlation of geographic distributions of haptoglobin alleles with prevalence of multiple sclerosis (MS) - a narrative literature review.

We have proposed that the myelin damage observed in multiple sclerosis (MS) may be partly mediated through the long-term release and degradation of extracellular hemoglobin (Hb) and the products of its oxidative degradation [Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 71, 1789-1798, 2014]. The protein haptoglobin (Hpt) binds extracellular Hb as a first line of defense, and can serve as a vascular antioxidant. Humans have two different Hpt alleles: Hpt1 and Hpt2, giving either homozygous Hpt1-1 or Hpt2-2 phenotypes, or a heterozygous Hpt1-2 phenotype.