Community-engaged adaptation of ACCESS: A navigator-led early palliative care intervention for Black and Latina women with advanced breast cancer.

Introduction: Disparities in early palliative care (PC) access for Black and Latina women with advanced breast cancer (ABC) persist. This study elicited qualitative feedback from patients with ABC and health professionals to adapt a community navigator-led early PC program called ACCESS to improve PC access and supportive care outcomes for Black and Latina women with ABC.

Methods: This was a formative evaluation study using a community-engaged approach.

Sex Differences in Long COVID.

Importance: A substantial number of individuals worldwide experience long COVID, or post-COVID condition. Other postviral and autoimmune conditions have a female predominance, but whether the same is true for long COVID, especially within different subgroups, is uncertain.

Objective: To evaluate sex differences in the risk of developing long COVID among adults with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Shattering the monolith: burden of gastrointestinal cancer in Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

Asian Americans remain the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, and are anticipated to double over the next few decades. Asian Americans are the only major racial-ethnic group for whom cancer remains the leading cause of death, and multiple gastrointestinal cancers rank among the top five incident and fatal cancers. Most research to date presents Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI) in aggregate, overlooking their vast heterogeneity and hindering efforts to identify and address health disparities within AANHPI origin groups.

The Impact of Depression on Adherence to Diabetes Self-Management Behaviors in Breast Cancer Survivors.

Objective: Breast cancer survivors (BCS) have higher rates of depression which is associated with lower adherence to medications, diet, and physical activity. Managing diabetes (DM) requires adherence to several of these self-management behaviors (SMB), and BCS have an increased risk of DM. We investigated whether depressive symptoms were associated with adherence to DM SMB in a cohort of BCS.

Cells and circuits for amygdala neuroplasticity in the transition to chronic pain.

Maladaptive plasticity is linked to the chronification of diseases such as pain, but the transition from acute to chronic pain is not well understood mechanistically. Neuroplasticity in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) has emerged as a mechanism for sensory and emotional-affective aspects of injury-induced pain, although evidence comes from studies conducted almost exclusively in acute pain conditions and agnostic to cell type specificity. Here, we report time-dependent changes in genetically distinct and projection-specific CeA neurons in neuropathic pain.

Understanding premenstrual exacerbation: navigating the intersection of the menstrual cycle and psychiatric illnesses.

Premenstrual exacerbation of an existing psychiatric disorder refers to the worsening of symptoms inherent to the condition during the premenstrual phase. Research consistently indicates that hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle present a unique period of vulnerability for the onset or exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms, impacting diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment. This review sought to elucidate the phenomenon of premenstrual exacerbation and its impact across a spectrum of psychiatric illnesses, including mood, anxiety, psychotic, obsessive-compulsive, personality, and trauma-related disorders.

"If we don't speak the language, we aren't offered the same opportunities": Qualitative perspectives of palliative care access for women of color living with advanced breast cancer.

Context: Despite efforts to enhance equity, disparities in early palliative care (PC) access for historically minoritized patients with advanced breast cancer (ABC) persist. Insight into patient and clinician perspectives are needed to inform future models aimed at improving equity in PC access and outcomes.

Objectives: To explore qualitative barriers and facilitators to early PC access in an urban setting with Black and Latina women with ABC.

Improving Asthma Control Test completion rates across a multi-site pediatric pulmonary clinic network: a quality improvement initiative.

Objective: Assessing asthma control is an essential part of the outpatient management of children with asthma and can be performed through validated questionnaires such as the Asthma Control Test (ACT). Systematic approaches to incorporating the ACT in outpatient visits are often lacking, contributing to inconsistent completion rates. We conducted a quality improvement initiative to increase the proportion of visits where the ACT is completed for children with asthma in our multi-site pediatric pulmonary clinic network.

16 GCC Closed Forum: ICH M10 implementation; NGS, qPCR/dPCR, flow cytometry validation; tissue biomarkers; IS response; immunogenicity harmonization; bioanalytical industry status.

The 16th GCC Closed Forum was held in Orlando, FL, USA, on 23 June 2023. Representatives from international bioanalytical Contract Research Organizations were in attendance in order to discuss scientific and regulatory issues specific to bioanalysis. The issues discussed at the meeting included: IS response, flow cytometry, changes to the bioanalytical industry, NGS assays, biomarker assay for tissues, dPCR validation, immunogenicity harmonization and ICH M10 implementation.

Navigating privacy and security in telemedicine for primary care.

Objective: To examine patient and provider perspectives on privacy and security considerations in telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Study Design: Qualitative study with patients and providers from primary care practices in 3 National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network sites in New York, New York; North Carolina; and Florida.

Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted, audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using an inductive process.

Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests: prioritizing equity from bench to bedside.

Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests are blood-based tests designed to screen for signals of multiple cancers. There is growing interest and investment in examining the potential benefits and applications of MCED tests. If MCED tests are shown to have clinical utility, it is important to ensure that all people-regardless of their demographic or socioeconomic background-equitably benefit from these tests.

Examining and Addressing Telemedicine Disparities Through the Lens of the Social Determinants of Health: A Qualitative Study of Patient and Provider During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Accelerated use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic enabled uninterrupted healthcare delivery while unmasking care disparities for several vulnerable communities. The social determinants of health (SDOH) serve as a critical model for understanding how the circumstances in which people are born, work, and live impact health outcomes. We performed semi-structured interviews to understand patients and providers' experiences with telemedicine encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Examining the Trajectory of Health-Related Quality of Life among Coronavirus Disease Patients.

Background: Recent studies have reported a reduction in health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) among post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. However, there remains a gap in research examining the heterogeneity and determinants of HR-QoL trajectory in these patients.

Objective: To describe and identify factors explaining the variability in HR-QoL trajectories among a cohort of patients with history of COVID-19.

Racial and ethnic differences in post-traumatic stress trajectories in breast cancer survivors.

Purpose: To describe differences in post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms over time among racial and ethnic minoritized breast cancer survivors (BCS) with comorbid diabetes.

Design: In a multisite longitudinal study, post-traumatic stress was evaluated at baseline, 6 and 12 months through self-reported questionnaires (Impact of Events Scale-Revised [IES-R]).

Participants: One hundred and seventy-eight post-treatment BCS with diabetes were recruited from three tertiary medical centers.

Greater executive dysfunction in patients post-COVID-19 compared to those not infected.

Background: A number of patients post-coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) report cognitive impairment (CI), even months after acute infection. We aimed to assess if COVID-19 is associated with increased incidence of CI in comparison to controls.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Mount Sinai Health System Post-COVID-19 Registry in New York City, a prospective cohort of patients post-COVID-19 ≥18 years of age and non-infected controls.

World Trade Center workers with asthma and post-traumatic stress disorder perceive airflow limitation more accurately.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major risk factor for increased asthma morbidity among World Trade Center (WTC) workers.

Objective: To investigate whether differences in perception of airflow limitation mediate the association of PTSD with worse asthma control in WTC workers.

Methods: We collected data from WTC workers on asthma control (Asthma Control Questionnaire and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire) and daily peak expiratory flow (PEF) measures over 6 weeks.

The parabrachial to central amygdala pathway is critical to injury-induced pain sensitization in mice.

The spino-ponto-amygdaloid pathway is a major ascending circuit relaying nociceptive information from the spinal cord to the brain. Potentiation of excitatory synaptic transmission in the parabrachial nucleus (PBN) to central amygdala (CeA) pathway has been reported in rodent models of persistent pain. However, the functional significance of this pathway in the modulation of the somatosensory component of pain was recently challenged by studies showing that spinal nociceptive neurons do not target CeA-projecting PBN cells and that manipulations of this pathway have no effect on reflexive-defensive somatosensory responses to peripheral noxious stimulation.

Impact of diabetes on stage I lung cancer treatment patterns and prognosis in older adults: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Diabetes is a common comorbidity in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a growing population due to increased LC screening. However, it is unknown if diabetes is associated with less aggressive NSCLC treatment and worse NSCLC outcomes. This study aimed to investigate treatment patterns and outcomes of older patients with Stage I NSCLC and diabetes.