Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness of Medical Humanities in an Integrated Clerkship Program by a Novel Prospective Propensity Score Matching Framework.

Background: This study aims to rigorously compare the effectiveness of the educational programs of a new integrated clinical clerkship in medicine (3 months) and surgery (3 months) at a cancer center with the conventional subspecialty-based rotations at a tertiary teaching hospital, by this prospective, pre-post comparative method.

Methods: Between 2013-2016, we compared 69 students who had selected the integrated clerkship that emphasized clinical competency and medical humanities training with 138 matched peers who had completed conventional clerkships during the same period. Outcome measures for medical humanities included empathy, patient-centeredness, and other values and skills related to holistic health care professionalism by introducing prospective propensity score matching (PSM).

CT-guided needle biopsy: value of on-site cytopathologic evaluation of core specimen touch preparations.

Purpose: To examine the diagnostic effect of immediate on-site cytopathologic evaluation of tissue core touch preparations in computed tomographic (CT)-guided coaxial needle biopsy.

Materials And Methods: The authors reviewed the records of 430 patients and included 413 patients with 432 biopsies (210 in the lungs, 222 in other locations). Each time the guiding needle was moved to a new location in the lesion for tissue core procurement with the cutting needle, it represented a new session.

Thoracic chordoma: an unusual presentation of the spinal tumor.

Chordoma is an uncommon malignant bone tumor that originates from the remnants of the embryonic notochord. In most of the reported cases, chordomas occur at the skull base or in the sacrococcygeal spine but rarely in the thoracic spine. In this report, we describe a case of a large thoracic chordoma with posterior mediastinal extension in a 25-year-old woman who presented with left-hand anhydrosis.

Computed tomography characteristics of primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma.

Primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma is a very rare subtype of lung cancer. This report documents the CT features of 16 Chinese patients diagnosed with primary pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma from January 1999 to December 2005. A pre-treatment CT was used to assess the tumour site, size, borders, pleural and vascular involvement, and the presence of lymph node involvement.

A prognostic scoring system for locoregional control in nasopharyngeal carcinoma following conformal radiotherapy.

Purpose: This study established a prognostic scoring system for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which estimates the probability of locoregional (LR) control following definitive conformal radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Patients with nondisseminated NPC at initial presentation (n = 630) were enrolled in this study. All patients had magnetic resonance imaging of the head and neck and were treated with conformal radiotherapy.

Prevertebral muscle involvement in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and prognostic significance of prevertebral muscle involvement in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods And Materials: Between July 1990 and December 2001, 521 newly diagnosed patients with NPC treated at Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center (KF-SYSCC) were examined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for evidence of prevertebral muscle involvement before treatment. Patients were staged according to the 1997 American Joint Committee on Cancer staging classification of NPC based on the physical exams and MRI findings.

Self-expandable metallic tracheobronchial stent insertion and endobronchial electrocautery with flexible bronchoscopy: preliminary results at a cancer center.

Background And Purpose: Technical developments have facilitated the implantation of metallic stents and the use of endobronchial electrocautery through a flexible bronchoscope to reestablish airway patency in patients with airway obstruction. Their application in a 180-bed cancer center is described.

Patients And Methods: From August 2000 to December 2001, 12 patients (2 women, 10 men, mean age 53.

Improvement of local control of T3 and T4 nasopharyngeal carcinoma by hyperfractionated radiotherapy and concomitant chemotherapy.

Purpose: When the primary tumor of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is treated at the base of skull and intracranium with conventional radiotherapy, the result is generally poor. In this report, we investigated whether hyperfractionated radiotherapy (HFRT) and concomitant chemotherapy (CCT) could achieve better local control and survival in NPC patients with T3 and T4 lesions.

Patients And Methods: Forty-eight patients (11 T3 and 37 T4 NPC) were treated with HFRT and CCT.