: Evaluation of a Community Education Campaign to Increase Awareness of Cancer Signs and Symptoms in People in Regional Western Australians.

Introduction: Cancer outcomes for people living in rural and remote areas are worse than for those living in urban areas. Although access to and quality of cancer treatment are important determinants of outcomes, delayed presentation has been observed in rural patients.

Methods: Formative research with people from rural Western Australia (WA) led to the Find Cancer Early campaign.

The Improving Rural Cancer Outcomes Trial: a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention to reduce time to diagnosis in rural cancer patients in Western Australia.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.

The Improving Rural Cancer Outcomes Trial: a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention to reduce time to diagnosis in rural cancer patients in Western Australia.

Background: Rural Australians have poorer survival for most common cancers, due partially to later diagnosis. Internationally, several initiatives to improve cancer outcomes have focused on earlier presentation to healthcare and timely diagnosis. We aimed to measure the effect of community-based symptom awareness and general practice-based educational interventions on the time to diagnosis in rural patients presenting with breast, prostate, colorectal or lung cancer in Western Australia.

Public health advocacy in action: the case of unproven breast cancer screening in Australia.

In recent years, nonmammographic breast imaging devices, such as thermography, electrical impedance scanning and elastography, have been promoted directly to consumers, which has captured the attention of governments, researchers and health organisations. These devices are not supported by evidence and risk undermining existing mammographic breast cancer screening services. During a 5-year period, Cancer Council Western Australia (CCWA) used strategic research combined with legal, policy and media advocacy to contest claims that these devices were proven alternatives to mammography for breast cancer screening.

The Improving Rural Cancer Outcomes (IRCO) Trial: a factorial cluster-randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention to reduce time to diagnosis in rural patients with cancer in Western Australia: a study protocol.

Introduction: While overall survival for most common cancers in Australia is improving, the rural-urban differential has been widening, with significant excess deaths due to lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer in regional Australia. Internationally a major focus on understanding variations in cancer outcomes has been later presentation to healthcare and later diagnosis. Approaches to reducing time to diagnosis of symptomatic cancer include public symptom awareness campaigns and interventions in primary care to improve early cancer detection.

The mathematical relationship between dishware size and portion size.

Portion size has increased considerably over the past few decades and one influencing factor is dishware size. Using mathematical models we investigated how dish size affects the potential energy available in a meal. Two types of plate filling - flat and conical - were modelled for a range of plate sizes and energy densities, then compared to recommended daily energy requirements from Australian guidelines.

Alcohol and cancer: a position statement from Cancer Council Australia.

The Cancer Council Australia (CCA) Alcohol Working Group has prepared a position statement on alcohol use and cancer. The statement has been reviewed by external experts and endorsed by the CCA Board. Alcohol use is a cause of cancer.

Impact of a short, culturally relevant training course on cancer knowledge and confidence in Western Australia's Aboriginal Health Professionals.

Objective: To develop, deliver and evaluate a cancer education course for Indigenous Health Professionals.

Method: The cancer education course combines expert presentations, interactive sessions and visits to local cancer treatment centres. Three four-day courses have been run, in both metropolitan and regional Western Australia (WA).

Estimates of beneficial and harmful sun exposure times during the year for major Australian population centres.

Objective: To examine the influence of geographical and seasonal factors on duration of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure of skin to produce recommended vitamin D levels without producing erythema.

Design And Setting: An ecological study using daily Ultraviolet Index (UVI) data collected in major population centres across Australia for 1 year (1 January - 31 December 2001) to calculate sun exposure times for recommended vitamin D production and erythema.

Main Outcome Measures: Sun exposure times to produce either serum vitamin D concentrations equivalent to an oral intake of 200-600 IU/day or erythema for people aged 19-50 years with fair skin (Fitzpatrick type II skin) exposing 15% of the body.

Liver inflammation and cytokine production, but not acute phase protein synthesis, accompany the adult liver progenitor (oval) cell response to chronic liver injury.

Oval cells are facultative liver progenitor cells, which are invoked during chronic liver injury in order to replenish damaged hepatocytes and bile duct cells. Previous studies have observed inflammation and cytokine production in the liver during chronic injury. Further, it has been proposed that inflammatory growth factors may mediate the proliferation of oval cells during disease progression.

Establishment, characterization, and long-term maintenance of cultures of human fetal hepatocytes.

Cultured human hepatocytes have broad research and clinical applications; however, the difficulties in culturing rodent and human hepatocytes are well known. These problems include the rapid loss of the hepatocytic phenotype in primary culture and the limited replicating capacity of the cultured cells. We describe the establishment of serum-free primary cultures of human fetal hepatocytes (HFHs) that retain hepatocytic morphology and gene expression patterns for several months and maintain sufficient proliferative activity to permit subculturing for at least 2 passages.

Oval cell-mediated liver regeneration: Role of cytokines and growth factors.

In experimental models, which induce liver damage and simultaneously block hepatocyte proliferation, the recruitment of a hepatic progenitor cell population comprised of oval cells is invariably observed. There is a substantial body of evidence to suggest that oval cells are involved in liver regeneration, as they differentiate into hepatocytes and biliary cells. Recently, bone marrow cells were shown to be a source of a stem cells with the capacity to repopulate the liver.

Ethanol interactions with a choline-deficient, ethionine-supplemented feeding regime potentiate pre-neoplastic cellular alterations in rat liver.

To examine the effect of ethanol on hepatocarcinogenesis induced by a choline-deficient, ethionine-supplemented (CDE) diet, rats were fed either an ethanol-supplemented diet or ethanol-free, isocaloric diet for 2 months, followed by a CDE diet or control diet for up to 8 months. Changes to cellular composition and pattern of gene expression in the liver were determined at 0 and 3 days, and 1, 2 and 3 weeks after commencing the CDE diet, using histological/immunochemical techniques and northern analysis. Oval cells in the liver were identified morphologically and by expression of pi-glutathione S-transferase (pi-GST), alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and the embryonic isoform of pyruvate kinase (M2-PK).

Generation and characterization of p53 null transformed hepatic progenitor cells: oval cells give rise to hepatocellular carcinoma.

Oval cells are bipotential liver stem cells able to differentiate into hepatocytes and bile duct epithelia. In normal adult liver oval cells are quiescent, existing in low numbers around the periportal region, and proliferate following severe, prolonged liver trauma. There is evidence implicating oval cells in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, and hence the availability of an immortalized oval cell line would be invaluable for the study of liver cell lineage differentiation and carcinogenesis.