Effectiveness and Safety of Treatments for Early-Stage Merkel Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized and Non-Randomized Studies.

Objective: The lack of consensus on the benefits and harms of standard therapies, including surgery (SRx), radiotherapy (RTx), chemotherapy (CTx), and their combinations among early-stage MCC, prompted this study.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized and non-randomized studies published between January 01, 1972, and January 31, 2023, and having overall survival (OS), local recurrence (LR), regional recurrence (RR), disease-specific survival (DSS), and/or disease-free survival (DFS) as outcomes was conducted using the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed (NCBI), Scopus (ELSEVIER), and Web of Science (CLAVIRATE) databases. Hazard ratios (HRs) and their variances were pooled using the inverse variance heterogeneity model.

Predictive and Interpretable Machine Learning of Economic Burden: The Role of Chronic Conditions Among Elderly Patients with Incident Primary Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC).

Objective: To evaluate chronic conditions as leading predictors of economic burden over time among older adults with incident primary Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) using machine learning methods.

Methods: We used a retrospective cohort of older adults (age ≥ 67 years) diagnosed with MCC between 2009 and 2019. For these elderly MCC patients, we derived three phases (pre-diagnosis, during-treatment, and post-treatment) anchored around cancer diagnosis date.

The Influence of Nutrition Intervention on the P1NP and CTX-1 Response to an Acute Exercise Bout: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis.

Background: Although nutrition and exercise both influence bone metabolism, little is currently known about their interaction, or whether nutritional intervention can modulate the bone biomarker response to acute exercise. Improved understanding of the relationships between nutrition, exercise and bone metabolism may have substantial potential to inform nutritional interventions to protect the bone health of exercising individuals, and to elucidate mechanisms by which exercise and nutrition influence bone.

Objective: The aim was to synthesise available evidence related to the influence of nutrition on the response of the bone biomarkers procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (P1NP) and C-terminal telopeptide of type 1 collagen (CTX-1) to acute exercise, using a systematic review and meta-analytic approach.

Exercise during pregnancy Dose: Influence on preterm birth outcomes.

Background: Preterm delivery typically increases health risk for neonates and is associated with longer infant hospital stay and financial burden. Prenatal exercise dose (frequency, intensity, type, time, volume) have been shown to influence birth outcomes. Increased prenatal exercise dose could therefore provide a critical reduction in health risk and financial burden in preterm neonates.