Regional collaborative home-based palliative care and health care outcomes among adults with heart failure.

Background: Innovative models of collaborative palliative care are urgently needed to meet gaps in end-of-life care among people with heart failure. We sought to determine whether regionally organized, collaborative, home-based palliative care that involves cardiologists, primary care providers and palliative care specialists, and that uses shared decision-making to promote goal- and need-concordant care for patients with heart failure, was associated with a greater likelihood of patients dying at home than in hospital.

Methods: We conducted a population-based matched cohort study of adults who died with chronic heart failure across 2 large health regions in Ontario, Canada, between 2013 and 2019.

Exploring Health Care Providers' Experiences of Providing Collaborative Palliative Care for Patients With Advanced Heart Failure At Home: A Qualitative Study.

Background The HeartFull Collaborative is a regionally organized model of care which involves specialist palliative care and cardiology health care providers (HCPs) in a collaborative, home-based palliative care approach for patients with advanced heart failure (AHF). We evaluated HCP perspectives of barriers and facilitators to providing coordinated palliative care for patients with AHF at home. Methods and Results We conducted a qualitative study with 17 HCPs (11 palliative care and 6 cardiology) who were involved in the HeartFull Collaborative from April 2013 to March 2020.

Identifying barriers and facilitators to palliative care integration in the management of hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A qualitative study.

Background: Palliative care is well suited to support patients hospitalized with COVID-19, but integration into care has been variable and generally poor.

Aim: To understand barriers and facilitators of palliative care integration for hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Methods: Internists, Intensivists and palliative care physicians completed semi-structured interviews about their experiences providing care to patients with COVID-19.

Tumor suppressors in follicular lymphoma.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the most common indolent lymphoma. The vast majority of cases are associated with the chromosome translocation t(14;18), a somatic rearrangement that leads to constitutive expression of the anti-apoptotic BCL2 protein. Although t(14;18) clearly represents an important early event in FL pathogenesis, abundant evidence indicates that it is not sufficient.

Smooth muscle specific deletion of Ndst1 leads to decreased vessel luminal area and no change in blood pressure in conscious mice.

Heparan sulfate proteoglycans are abundant matrix and membrane molecules. Smooth muscle specific deletion of one heparan sulfate biosynthetic enzyme, N-deacetylase-N-sulfotransferase1 leads to decreased vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation, and vascular wall thickness. We hypothesized that this may lead to changes in blood pressure in conscious mice.

The CIC-DUX4 fusion transcript is present in a subgroup of pediatric primitive round cell sarcomas.

Pediatric undifferentiated soft tissue sarcomas are a group of diagnostically challenging tumors. Recent studies have identified a subgroup of undifferentiated soft tissue sarcomas with primitive round to plump spindle cell morphology and a t(4;19)(q35;q13.1) translocation resulting in the expression of a CIC-DUX4 fusion transcript, including 2 tumors previously reported by our laboratory (Cancer Genet Cytogenet 2009;195:1).

Immunohistochemical expression and cluster analysis of mesenchymal and neural stem cell-associated proteins in pediatric soft tissue sarcomas.

Pediatric undifferentiated soft tissue sarcomas (USTSs) are a group of malignancies composed predominantly of primitive round cell sarcomas, the histogenesis of which is uncertain. Thus, diagnosis and therapy remain a challenge. The aims of the current study were to determine whether differential expression of stem cell-associated proteins could be used to aid in determining the histogenesis of pediatric USTSs and to determine whether pediatric USTSs expressed a unique panel of stem cell-associated proteins to aid diagnosis.

Genomic instability and copy-number heterogeneity of chromosome 19q, including the kallikrein locus, in ovarian carcinomas.

Many tissue kallikrein (KLK) genes and proteins are candidate diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers for ovarian cancer (OCa). We previously demonstrated that the KLK locus (19q13.3/4) is subject to copy-number gains and structural rearrangements in a pilot study of cell lines and ovarian cancer primary tissues, shown to overexpress KLK gene family members.

Detailed cytogenetic and array analysis of pediatric primitive sarcomas reveals a recurrent CIC-DUX4 fusion gene event.

Pediatric undifferentiated soft tissue sarcomas (USTS) are a diagnostically challenging group of neoplasms. Recently, a subcategory of USTS with primitive round cell morphology and a t(4;19)(q35;q13) rearrangement has been defined. The present study applied high-throughput array comparative genomic hybridization together with spectral karyotyping, four-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to a series of three pediatric USTS.

Impact of cytogenetic and genomic aberrations of the kallikrein locus in ovarian cancer.

The tissue kallikrein (KLK) genes are a new source for biomarkers in ovarian cancer. However, there has been no systematic analysis of copy number and structural rearrangements related to their protein expression. Chromosomal rearrangements and copy number changes of the KLK region were studied by FISH with protein levels measured by ELISA.