Emergency and non-emergency routes to cancer diagnoses in 2020 and 2021: A Population-based study of 154,863 patients.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted normal pathways to cancer diagnosis, particularly for screening and non-acute symptomatic patients. While reductions in overall cancer diagnoses have been reported elsewhere, any differential effects on emergency presentations, which are associated with poorer outcomes, have not been described.

Material And Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study from 2015 to 2021, based on International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership methods, where emergency route to diagnosis is defined as presenting as an emergency admission in the 30 days prior to cancer incidence date.

Obesity-associated changes in molecular biology of primary breast cancer.

Obesity is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer (BC) and worse prognosis in BC patients, yet its impact on BC biology remains understudied in humans. This study investigates how the biology of untreated primary BC differs according to patients' body mass index (BMI) using data from >2,000 patients. We identify several genomic alterations that are differentially prevalent in overweight or obese patients compared to lean patients.

Interval cancers in a national colorectal screening programme based on faecal immunochemical testing: Implications for faecal haemoglobin concentration threshold and sex inequality.

Objective: To compare interval cancer proportions (ICP) in the faecal immunochemical test (FIT)-based Scottish Bowel Screening Programme (SBoSP) with the former guaiac faecal occult blood test (gFOBT)-based SBoSP and investigate associations between interval cancer (IC) and faecal haemoglobin concentration (f-Hb) threshold, sex, age, deprivation, site, and stage.

Methods: The ICP data from first year of the FIT-based SBoSP and the penultimate year of the gFOBT-based SBoSP were compared in a prospective cohort design.

Results: With FIT, 801 colorectal cancers (CRCs) were screen detected (SDC), 802 were in non-participants, 548 were ICs, 39 were colonoscopy missed and 72 were diagnosed after incomplete screening; with gFOBT: 540, 904, 556, 45, and 13, respectively.

The frequency and clinical significance of centromere enumeration probe 17 alterations in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 immunohistochemistry-equivocal invasive breast cancer.

Background And Aims: Chromosome 17 alterations affect the assessment of HER2 gene amplification in breast cancer (BC), but its clinical significance remains unclear. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of centromere enumeration probe 17 (CEP17) alterations, and its correlation with response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) in BC patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) immunohistochemistry-equivocal score.

Methods And Results: A large BC cohort (n = 6049) with HER2 immunohistochemistry score 2+ and florescent in-situ hybridisation (FISH) results was included to assess the prevalence of CEP17 alterations.

Post-intensive care syndrome following cardiothoracic critical care: Feasibility of a complex intervention.

Objectives: To describe the long-term outcomes of cardiac intensive care unit patients and their primary caregivers, and to explore the feasibility of implementing a complex intervention, designed to support problems associated with post-intensive care syndrome and post-intensive care syndrome-family, in the year following discharge from the cardiac intensive care unit.

Design: A complex multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme, delivered as a quality improvement initiative, in a single centre in the West of Scotland. Outcomes were measured using surveys of health related quality of life, self efficacy, anxiety, depression, pain, caregiver strain, and insomnia.