A systematic review of oral assessment instruments: what can we recommend to practitioners in children's and young people's cancer care?

Background: Observing and recording the signs and symptoms of oral mucositis are an important part of oral care, essential to the prevention and treatment of mucositis. Structured oral assessment enables a more informed and accurate identification of signs and symptoms and will enable early and individualized interventions.

Objective: A United Kingdom-based mouth-care group conducted a systematic review of the published literature through to March 2004 and repeated in 2008.

Measuring quality of life in children and young people after transplantation: methodological considerations.

The measurement of QoL has become an important area for research in paediatric transplantation over the past 15 yr. While much of this work remains descriptive and exploratory, advances in treatment and the trend towards outcomes being patient centred and not just survival based suggest the measurement of QoL will be of far more importance and relevance in the future. In this discussion article, we will outline some of the issues that need to be considered when embarking on a QoL study.

The development of evidence-based guidelines on mouth care for children, teenagers and young adults treated for cancer.

The aim was to produce evidence-based guidelines on mouth care for children, teenagers and young adults receiving chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Systematic reviews were undertaken and research was graded according to the methods of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network. Where no relevant research was identified, an opinion-gathering process was undertaken.

Drugs, discrimination and disability.

Whether addiction to prohibited drugs should be classified as a disability for the purposes of disability discrimination is a controversial question in Australia. The leading Australian case of Marsden v Human Rights Equal Opportunity Commission & Coffs Harbour & District Ex-Servicemen & Women's Memorial Club Ltd (HREOC, No H98/51, 30 August 1999); [2000] FCA 1619 concerned a disability discrimination complaint brought by Mr Marsden as a result of his treatment by the club. The case was brought as a public interest test case by the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission.

Waved aCGH: to smooth or not to smooth.

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) is a powerful tool to detect genomic imbalances in the human genome. The analysis of aCGH data sets has revealed the existence of a widespread technical artifact termed as 'waves', characterized by an undulating data profile along the chromosome. Here, we describe the development of a novel noise-reduction algorithm, waves aCGH correction algorithm (WACA), based on GC content and fragment size correction.

Refinement of the Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES): child and parent perspectives on understandability, content validity and acceptability.

Purpose: A new paediatric mucositis assessment instrument, the Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES), has required several phases of development. A draft of ChIMES was developed that required further refinement. This paper describes two iterations of refinements of ChIMES using child and parent reporting of understandability, content validity and overall acceptability.

Contemporary issues relating to assessment of pre-registration nursing students in practice.

Clinical placements are an essential part of pre-registration nurse education. Mentors have a vital role in providing constructive feedback and assessing the student throughout their placement. There have been reports of failing to fail students in practice, however, little evidence has been provided to support this.

Scavenger receptor A is expressed by macrophages in response to Porphyromonas gingivalis, and participates in TNF-alpha expression.

Introduction: Porphyromonas gingivalis is a periodontopathic bacterium closely associated with generalized aggressive periodontal disease. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) participate in host response to this organism. It is likely that PRRs not previously recognized as part of the host response to P.

Understandability, content validity, and overall acceptability of the Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES): child and parent reporting.

Mucositis assessment in children has primarily relied on assessment tools that have been developed for an adult population. A mucositis assessment scale for use in children has previously been developed from expert opinion, namely Children's International Mucositis Evaluation Scale (ChIMES). After the development of ChIMES, we aimed to evaluate the user perspective of the scale by testing the understandability, content validity, and overall acceptability of ChIMES working with parents, children, and teenagers as content experts.

How do young people find out about their parent's cancer diagnosis: a phenomenological study.

Aim: Grief and its many manifestations can irrevocably change family life and the multiple relationships within. Informed by this, one is led to consider the extent an adult nurse provides a family focus to cancer care. It arguably remains wanting, particularly in adult healthcare environments where 'family' can still infer 'spouse' and the needs of children and young people at home may as a result go unrecognized.

Modeling and managing experimental data using FuGE.

The Functional Genomics Experiment data model (FuGE) has been developed to increase the consistency and efficiency of experimental data modeling in the life sciences, and it has been adopted by a number of high-profile standardization organizations. FuGE can be used: (1) directly, whereby generic modeling constructs are used to represent concepts from specific experimental activities; or (2) as a framework within which method-specific models can be developed. FuGE is both rich and flexible, providing a considerable number of modeling constructs, which can be used in a range of different ways.

What are the experiences of the child with a brain tumour and their parents?

Brain tumours are one of the most common forms of childhood cancer, affecting approximately 350 children in the UK each year (CancerBackup, 2005). The complex and long treatment for such tumours is often delivered in more than one place of care, as a result children and their families meet a large number of healthcare professionals from a variety of disciplines. The study described in this paper was undertaken to explore the experiences of children/young people (C/YP) with a brain tumour (and their families) being treated at a NHS Trust.

Study of the factors affecting health-related quality of life in adolescents after liver transplantation.

The aim of the study was to identify factors affecting health-related quality of life (HRQL) in adolescents after liver transplantation. HRQL was measured using the CHQ-CF87 in 55 adolescents, aged 12-18 years. Factors associated with HRQL included allograft morbidity, psychological and family-related variables measured through standardized questionnaires.

Involving health professionals in the development of an advanced symptom management system for young people: the ASyMS-YG study.

Purpose Of The Study: ASyMS is an advanced symptom management system utilising mobile phone technology for patients to report cancer chemotherapy-related symptoms. The aim of this paper is to present health professionals involvement in the development of ASyMS for use with young people (YG) and evaluate their perceptions of the system. STAGE 1: Health professionals reviewed the symptoms chosen by young people to be included on the personal digital assistant questionnaire to confirm they would have universal relevance.

Near-optimal conditions for the in vitro culture of hemopoietic progenitor cells in bone marrow from the rat.

In vitro techniques for the culture of hemopoietic stem cells and committed hemopoietic progenitor cells in rat bone marrow have not been adequately described in the literature. In the present investigations, and using commercially available hemopoietic cytokines and growth factors, the conditions required to perform long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) using rat femoral bone marrow were studied, in conjunction with the colony-forming unit cell assay (CFU-C), to quantify the number of progenitor cells. CFU-C production by LTBMCs, set up using Iscove's modified Dulbecco's medium supplemented with fetal calf serum and horse serum, ceased after week 2 of culture.

Evaluating the association of common APOA2 variants with type 2 diabetes.

Background: APOA2 is a positional and biological candidate gene for type 2 diabetes at the chromosome 1q21-q24 susceptibility locus. The aim of this study was to examine if HapMap phase II tag SNPs in APOA2 are associated with type 2 diabetes and quantitative traits in French Caucasian subjects.

Methods: We genotyped the three HapMap phase II tagging SNPs (rs6413453, rs5085 and rs5082) required to capture the common variation spanning the APOA2 locus in our type 2 diabetes case-control cohort comprising 3,093 French Caucasian subjects.

Nurse prescribers' interactions with and perceptions of pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of our study was to investigate the perceptions of pharmaceutical sales representatives by nurse prescribers.

Background: Nurses with advanced training have earned prescriptive authority in North America, Europe and other parts of the world. These nurses are being increasingly targeted by pharmaceutical sales representatives.

Navigating the maze: parents' views and influence on a paediatric haematology and oncology day care service.

Aim: To examine with families their views on the service they receive in a Paediatric Haematology/Oncology Day Care Unit.

Background: National policy emphasises the importance of involving children, young people and families in the planning of services they are receiving. To be responsive to real, as opposed to perceived needs, health care professionals are actively seeking ways to capture the voice of the families they care for through a process of consultation and action.

The experience of living with a chronic illness during adolescence: a critical review of the literature.

Aims: To identify and critique literature on the adolescent lived experience of chronic illness; describe the lived experience; and to make recommendations for clinical practice.

Background: Young people with chronic illness have the same developmental issues as those who are healthy. However, development can be disrupted by treatment and repeated hospitalisation.

A systematic review of treatments for constipation in children and young adults undergoing cancer treatment.

Constipation is a common problem in children and young people with cancer. Treatment of this complication is subject to wide variation in practice. We undertook a systematic review of randomized controlled trials to build a rational approach to prophylaxis and treatment of this complication.

Designing an oral mucositis assessment instrument for use in children: generating items using a nominal group technique.

Goals Of Work: There was a need to develop a mucositis instrument that would be specific for use with children. This paper describes the step of generating items in the process of developing a new instrument for the assessment of oral mucositis in children.

Materials And Methods: Nine health care professionals with expertise in pediatric cancer, mucositis assessment, and oral assessment in children were invited to participate in a nominal group technique to generate items that should be included in an instrument.