Publications by authors named "Edith Pituskin"

Article Synopsis
  • Individuals with long COVID experience persistent symptoms like fatigue, muscle weakness, and mental health issues that significantly affect their quality of life and independence.
  • The BLEND study evaluates a digital wellness platform (My Viva Plan) over 8 weeks to see if it can improve health outcomes compared to usual care for those with post-COVID-19 condition.
  • The primary focus is on the feasibility of using the platform, while secondary outcomes include changes in nutrition, physical activity, and overall well-being after the intervention.
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Introduction: Short-term clinical outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection are generally favorable. However, 15-20% of patients report persistent symptoms of at least 12 weeks duration, often referred to as long COVID. Population studies have also demonstrated an increased risk of incident diabetes and cardiovascular disease at 12 months following infection.

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Background & Aims: Accurately estimating resting energy requirements is crucial for optimizing energy intake, particularly in the context of patients with varying energy needs, such as individuals with cancer. We sought to evaluate the agreement between resting energy expenditure (REE) predicted by 40 equations and that measured by reference methods in women undergoing active breast cancer treatment stage (I-IV) and post-completion (i.e.

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Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) modeled care is recommended for patients with breast cancer to mitigate risk of cardiotoxicity. However, the cardiovascular impact of CR-modeled interventions has not been studied.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate if a multidisciplinary model of CR reduces cardiotoxicity and improves cardiovascular risk in patients undergoing breast cancer treatment.

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Article Synopsis
  • People with advanced cancer have special needs that aren't always met, so more research is needed to help them.
  • A team working on this topic, including people who have experienced it themselves, talked to others and looked at different ways to involve patients in research.
  • They created a new plan to make sure these patients can partner with researchers, which can help improve rehabilitation strategies for people with advanced cancer.
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Background: Urinary incontinence (UI), erectile dysfunction and cardiometabolic conditions are common after prostatectomy for prostate cancer (PCa). Although physical activity could improve overall survival and quality of survivorship, fear of UI can restrict participation in exercise. Individuals with PCa could benefit from therapeutic exercise programming to support continence recovery and cardiometabolic health.

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Purpose: Improvements in diagnosis and treatment mean that the long-term health of breast cancer survivors (BCS) is increasingly dictated by cardiovascular comorbidities. This is partly a consequence of exposure to cardiotoxic therapies, which result in cardiac dysfunction and decreased cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF). Exercise training (ExT) is a key therapeutic strategy for secondary prevention and increasing CRF in adults with established cardiovascular disease.

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Background: Although some cancer therapies have overt and/or subclinical cardiotoxic effects that increase subsequent cardiovascular risk in breast cancer patients, we have recently shown that the breast tumor itself can also induce cardiac hypertrophy through the activation of the endothelin system to contribute to cardiovascular risk. However, the extent to which the suppression of the activation of the endothelin system could improve cardiac remodeling in breast cancer patients has yet to be investigated.

Objectives: We aimed to retrospectively assess the cardiac morphology/function in patients with breast cancer before receiving cancer chemotherapy and to investigate if the suppression of the activation of the endothelin system improves cardiac remodeling in a mouse model of breast cancer.

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With significant improvements in the understanding of cancer biology, improved detection, and the use of novel adjuvant therapies, each year more Canadians are surviving a cancer diagnosis. Despite their effectiveness these therapies often result in short- and long-term deleterious effects to major organ systems, particularly cardiovascular. Cardio-oncology is an emerging field of study with the aim to improve cardiovascular health across the oncology disease spectrum.

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Background: Many patients with breast cancer receive therapies with the potential to cause cardiotoxicity. Echocardiography and multiple-gated acquisition (MUGA) scans are the most used modalities to assess cardiac function during treatment in high-risk patients; however, the optimal imaging strategy and the impact on outcome are unknown.

Methods: Consecutive patients with stage 0-3 breast cancer undergoing pre-treatment echocardiography or MUGA were identified from a tertiary care cancer center from 2010-2019.

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Background & Aim: Phase angle (PhA) obtained from bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is an indicator of cellular integrity and relates to several chronic conditions. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to evaluate the association of PhA with health-related physical fitness, namely, cardiorespiratory fitness, skeletal muscle volume, and myosteatosis (i.e.

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Background: Exercise can help mitigate side effects of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), particularly when initiated before HSCT. However, the exercise-related barriers, facilitators, and preferences of this population remain unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the patient experience to inform future implementation of a prehabilitation intervention.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study analyzed the effects of an 8-week time-restricted eating (TRE) intervention on body composition in women over 60 who had completed chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer.
  • Results showed significant reductions in body weight and total fat mass, while most participants exhibited low phase angles indicating poorer cell health and hydration issues.
  • The findings suggest that TRE can lead to improved body composition metrics in obese participants, highlighting the usefulness of bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) for assessing these changes.
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Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of telephone-based delivery of weekday-only time-restricted eating (TRE), its preliminary efficacy for metabolic outcomes, and concurrent lifestyle changes.

Methods: Twenty-two breast cancer survivors aged 60+ years with overweight/obesity completed an 8-week feasibility study of 12 to 8 p.m.

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Metabolic dysfunction and excess accumulation of adipose tissue are detrimental side effects from breast cancer treatment. Diet and physical activity are important treatments for metabolic abnormalities, yet patient compliance can be challenging during chemotherapy treatment. Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a feasible dietary pattern where eating is restricted to 8 h/d with water-only fasting for the remaining 16 h.

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A survey was conducted to identify barriers and facilitators to engaging in virtual and in-person cancer-specific exercise during COVID-19. A theory-informed, multi-method, cross-sectional survey was electronically distributed to 192 individuals with cancer investigating preferences towards exercise programming during COVID-19. Respondents had previously participated in an exercise program and comprised two groups: those who had experience with virtual exercise programming ('Virtual') and those who had only taken part in in-person exercise ('In-Person').

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Reduced exercise tolerance and fatigue are hallmark features in both breast cancer (BC) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and are associated with decreased physical function and quality of life. This brief review focuses on the mechanisms of exercise intolerance in women with BC across the survivorship continuum and highlights how these disturbances within the oxygen transport cascade are similar to that of HFpEF patients. Specifically, the role that impaired cardiac, peripheral vascular and skeletal muscle function play in limiting peak oxygen uptake are discussed.

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Introduction: Conscience is central to moral decision making. In the context of morally pluralistic workplaces today, healthcare professionals' conscience may prompt them to make moral decisions to refrain from providing services they morally disagree with. However, such decisions are largely viewed as contentious, giving rise to polarising arguments for and against healthcare professionals' freedom of conscience.

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