Factors associated with avoidable 30-day readmissions in patients with cancer: a single institution study.

Purpose: Unplanned readmissions have profound medical and financial implications for patients and hospitals. Cancer patients are particularly susceptible to readmission and often face complex care needs. This quality improvement project aimed to identify factors associated with avoidable hospitalizations among oncology patients.

Cultivating compassion in medicine: a toolkit for medical students to improve self-kindness and enhance clinical care.

Background: Compassionate care lies at the foundation of good patient care and is a quality that patients and providers continue to value in the fast-paced setting of contemporary medicine. Compassion is often discussed superficially in medical school curricula, but the practical aspect of learning this skill is often not taught using a formal framework. In the present work, the authors present an 8-session curriculum with a mindfulness-based approach to compassion that addresses this need.

Case report: Metastatic metaplastic breast cancer with choriocarinomatous features: Targeting the choriocarcinoma component for cure.

Breast cancer with choriocarcinomatous features (BCCF) is a rare and aggressive breast cancer. BCCF carries a poor prognosis and there is unfortunately scant literature to guide treatment beyond surgical resection with most patients receiving standard regimens for breast cancer. In our case, we present a 42-year-old female with an initial hCG of 2,324 and two suspicious lesions of the right breast.

Regulation of the error-prone DNA polymerase Polκ by oncogenic signaling and its contribution to drug resistance.

The DNA polymerase Polκ plays a key role in translesion synthesis, an error-prone replication mechanism. Polκ is overexpressed in various tumor types. Here, we found that melanoma and lung and breast cancer cells experiencing stress from oncogene inhibition up-regulated the expression of Polκ and shifted its localization from the cytoplasm to the nucleus.

Prescribing Patterns of Heart Failure-Exacerbating Medications Following a Heart Failure Hospitalization.

Objectives: This study sought to describe the patterns of heart failure (HF)-exacerbating medications used among older adults hospitalized for HF and to examine determinants of HF-exacerbating medication use.

Background: HF-exacerbating medications can potentially contribute to adverse outcomes and could represent an important target for future strategies to improve post-hospitalization outcomes.

Methods: Medicare beneficiaries ≥65 years of age with an adjudicated HF hospitalization between 2003 and 2014 were derived from the geographically diverse REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Difference in Stroke) cohort study.