High-intensity exercise increases breast milk adiponectin concentrations: a randomised cross-over study.

Introduction: Adiponectin plays a role in glucose and fat metabolism and is present in human breast milk. It has been postulated that higher breast milk adiponectin concentrations may prevent rapid weight gain in infancy. Prior research indicates that circulating adiponectin increases acutely after endurance exercise, but no prior research has investigated the effect of exercise on breast milk adiponectin concentrations.

Downgrading of referrals to breast cancer patient pathway.

Background: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the downgrading of external referrals to breast cancer patient pathways was clinically justifiable and led to a more correct prioritisation of patients who are referred to the specialist health service.

Material And Method: The study included 214 external referrals to breast cancer patient pathways at the Breast Screening Centre, Oslo University Hospital, which were downgraded in 2020 since they did not meet the national criteria. The information obtained from electronic patient records included age, district of Oslo, name of referring doctor, outcome after investigation and treatment, as well as recommended timeframe for initiating the investigation.

Data-Driven Technologies as Enablers for Value Creation in the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections: a Systematic Review.

Unlabelled: Despite the advances in modern medicine, the use of data-driven technologies (DDTs) to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs) remains a major challenge. Scholars recognise that data management is the next frontier in infection prevention, but many aspects related to the benefits and advantages of using DDTs to mitigate SSI risk factors remain unclear and underexplored in the literature. This study explores how DDTs enable value creation in the prevention of SSIs.

Nurturing innovative culture in a healthcare organisation - Lessons from a Swedish case study.

Purpose: Healthcare organisations are often described as less innovative than other organisations, since organisational culture works against innovations. In this paper, the authors ask whether it has to be that way or whether is possible to nurture an innovative culture in a healthcare organisation. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse nurturing an innovative culture within a healthcare organisation and how culture can support innovations in such a healthcare organisation.

Using systems thinking to increase understanding of the innovation system of healthcare organisations.

Purpose: This paper applies systems thinking modelling to enhance the dynamic understanding of how to nurture an innovative culture in healthcare organisations to develop the innovation system in practice and speed up the innovative work. The model aims to provide a holistic view of a studied healthcare organisation's innovation processes, ranging from managerial values to its manifestation in improved results.

Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on empirical material from a healthcare unit that, within a few years, changed from having no innovations to repeatedly generating innovations.

Hyperhomocysteinemia and Ischemic Stroke: A Potential Dose-Response Association-A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

 Previous studies suggest an association between increased homocysteine (Hcy) and risk of ischemic stroke. Yet, it remains unknown whether a dose-response association exists between Hcy levels and risk of ischemic stroke.  Systematic literature searches were performed in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science.

Patterns of aggressiveness: risk of progression to invasive breast cancer by mammographic features of calcifications in screen-detected ductal carcinoma in situ.

Background: Mammographic features of calcifications on mammograms showing invasive breast cancer are associated with survival. Less is known about mammographic features and progression to invasive breast cancer among women treated for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

Purpose: To investigate mammographic features of calcifications in screen-detected DCIS in women who later did and did not get diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.

A Longitudinal Study of the Association between Mammographic Density and Gene Expression in Normal Breast Tissue.

High mammographic density (MD) is associated with a 4-6 times increase in breast cancer risk. For post-menopausal women, MD often decreases over time, but little is known about the underlying biological mechanisms. MD reflects breast tissue composition, and may be associated with microenvironment subtypes previously identified in tumor-adjacent normal tissue.

Time series analysis of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and bevacizumab-treated breast carcinomas reveals a systemic shift in genomic aberrations.

Background: Chemotherapeutic agents such as anthracyclines and taxanes are commonly used in the neoadjuvant setting. Bevacizumab is an antibody which binds to vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and inhibits its receptor interaction, thus obstructing the formation of new blood vessels.

Methods: A phase II randomized clinical trial of 123 patients with Her2-negative breast cancer was conducted, with patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (fluorouracil (5FU)/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide (FEC) and taxane), with or without bevacizumab.

Writing Changes and Perceptions After Traumatic Brain Injury: "Oh, by the way, I can't write".

Purpose: Language and cognitive disruptions following traumatic brain injury (TBI) can negatively affect written expression and may result in increased difficulty achieving academic, vocational, social, and personal goals; however, scarce literature exists about TBI's effect on writing abilities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences and perceptions of people with TBI regarding their engagement in writing activities.

Method: A transcendental phenomenological design structured the research.

Interactions between the tumor and the blood systemic response of breast cancer patients.

Although systemic immunity is critical to the process of tumor rejection, cancer research has largely focused on immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. To understand molecular changes in the patient systemic response (SR) to the presence of BC, we profiled RNA in blood and matched tumor from 173 patients. We designed a system (MIxT, Matched Interactions Across Tissues) to systematically explore and link molecular processes expressed in each tissue.

The Longitudinal Transcriptional Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy with and without Bevacizumab in Breast Cancer.

Chemotherapy-induced alterations to gene expression are due to transcriptional reprogramming of tumor cells or subclonal adaptations to treatment. The effect on whole-transcriptome mRNA expression was investigated in a randomized phase II clinical trial to assess the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with the addition of bevacizumab. Tumor biopsies and whole-transcriptome mRNA profiles were obtained at three fixed time points with 66 patients in each arm.

Intensive breast screening in BRCA2 mutation carriers is associated with reduced breast cancer specific and all cause mortality.

Background: The addition of annual MRI screening to mammography has heightened optimism that intensive screening along with improved treatments may substantially improve life expectancy of women at high risk of breast cancer. However, survival data from BRCA2 mutation carriers undergoing intensive combined breast screening are scarce.

Methods: We have collated the results of screening with either annual mammography or mammography with MRI in female BRCA2 mutation carriers in Manchester and Oslo and use a Manchester control group of BRCA2 mutation carriers who had their first breast cancer diagnosed without intensive screening.

Peripheral blood cells inform on the presence of breast cancer: a population-based case-control study.

Tumor-host interactions extend beyond the local microenvironment and cancer development largely depends on the ability of malignant cells to hijack and exploit the normal physiological processes of the host. Here, we established that many genes within peripheral blood cells show differential expression when an untreated breast cancer (BC) is present, and harnessed this fact to construct a 50-gene signature that distinguish BC patients from population-based controls. Our results were derived from a series of large datasets within our unique population-based Norwegian Women and Cancer cohort that allowed us to investigate the influence of medications and tumor characteristics on our blood-based test, and were further tested in two external datasets.

The clinical utility of genetic testing in breast cancer kindreds: a prospective study in families without a demonstrable BRCA mutation.

We report prospectively observed risk for breast cancer in breast cancer kindreds without a demonstrable BRCA1/2 mutation. According to family history, the optimal available member(s) of each breast cancer kindred attending our clinic was tested for BRCA mutations. Women in families without a demonstrable BRCA mutation were subjected to annual mammography.

Survival of patients with BRCA1-associated breast cancer diagnosed in an MRI-based surveillance program.

We report the 5- and 10-year survival rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer in the context of an annual MRI-based surveillance program. In 2001, as part of a national initiative, women in Norway with a BRCA1 mutation were offered annual screening with breast MRI in addition to mammography. 802 women with a BRCA1 mutation were screened one or more times and followed for a mean of 4.

Gene expression profiles of breast biopsies from healthy women identify a group with claudin-low features.

Background: Increased understanding of the variability in normal breast biology will enable us to identify mechanisms of breast cancer initiation and the origin of different subtypes, and to better predict breast cancer risk.

Methods: Gene expression patterns in breast biopsies from 79 healthy women referred to breast diagnostic centers in Norway were explored by unsupervised hierarchical clustering and supervised analyses, such as gene set enrichment analysis and gene ontology analysis and comparison with previously published genelists and independent datasets.

Results: Unsupervised hierarchical clustering identified two separate clusters of normal breast tissue based on gene-expression profiling, regardless of clustering algorithm and gene filtering used.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer-response evaluation and prediction of response to treatment using dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MR imaging.

Objective: To explore the predictive value of MRI parameters and tumour characteristics before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to compare changes in tumour size and tumour apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) during treatment, between patients who achieved pathological complete response (pCR) and those who did not.

Methods: Approval by the Regional Ethics Committee and written informed consent were obtained. Thirty-one patients with invasive breast carcinoma scheduled for NAC were enrolled (mean age, 50.

Expression levels of uridine 5'-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase genes in breast tissue from healthy women are associated with mammographic density.

Introduction: Mammographic density (MD), as assessed from film screen mammograms, is determined by the relative content of adipose, connective and epithelial tissue in the female breast. In epidemiological studies, a high percentage of MD confers a four to six fold risk elevation of developing breast cancer, even after adjustment for other known breast cancer risk factors. However, the biologic correlates of density are little known.

Sensitivity of MRI versus conventional screening in the diagnosis of BRCA-associated breast cancer in a national prospective series.

We wanted to compare the sensitivities of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the conventional screening programme consisting of mammography (XRM) +/- ultrasound for early diagnosis of breast cancer in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. BRCA1/2 mutation carriers were examined prospectively by both breast MRI and XRM +/- ultrasound. Eight hundred and sixty-seven MRI examinations were carried out in 445 BRCA1 and 46 BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Radiation-induced effects on gene expression: an in vivo study on breast cancer.

Background And Purpose: Breast cancer is diagnosed worldwide in approximately one million women annually and radiation therapy is an integral part of treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the molecular basis underlying response to radiotherapy in breast cancer tissue.

Material And Methods: Tumour biopsies were sampled before radiation and after 10 treatments (of 2 Gray (Gy) each) from 19 patients with breast cancer receiving radiation therapy.

Tools to assess the nutritional status of acutely ill older adults.

Nurses are responsible for identifying patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. They are also expected to follow-up patients' nutritional status and to initiate preventive and caring interventions. The aim of this Swedish study was to explore whether simple assessment tools used during hospital admission could identify older adults at risk of malnutrition.

[Low-risk pregnant women in an obstetric department--how do they give birth?].

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the obstetric outcome for low-risk pregnant women delivering in a larger community hospital with 1800 deliveries annually. The investigation was carried out before the implementation of a differentiated plan for maternity care.

Material And Methods: From January through June 2002, 920 women delivered.

[Long-term effects after mantle field radiotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma].

Background: Cancer survivors have an increased risk of life-long health problems that may be associated with their treatment.

Methods: 78 women who 10 years or more ago at an age of below 40 had received mantle field radiotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma were examined for breast cancer and general health problems. Women in a population-based survey served as a control group.