Introduction: Anorectal melanoma is a rare neoplasm with an aggressive behavior and poor prognosis. Recently, recurrent gene mutations related to anorectal melanoma have been identified in a small series of cases, and this holds promise for targeted therapies, analogous to cutaneous melanoma. The purpose of this study was to analyze testing rates and prevalence of mutations in anorectal melanoma in the Dutch population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This review provides an overview of the literature on shared decision making (SDM) in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) or peripheral artery disease (PAD) and identifies barriers and facilitators.
Methods: A systematic scoping review was conducted in which four databases were systematically searched for the period January 2007 to November 2024. All articles were reviewed by two independent authors and asses for quality using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT).
The growing burden of cancer, with its costly and difficult to endure therapies, underscores the urgent need for individualized care that enhances patients' quality of life. Effective individualized treatment planning requires collaboration between healthcare professionals and patients (and their relatives), focusing on patients' personal values and preferences through shared decision-making. In practice, oncology care predominantly follows clinical guidelines, which, while reducing practice variation, may not account for individual patient differences in health status and preferences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: As the importance of the patient's perspective on treatment outcome is becoming increasingly clear, the availability of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) has grown accordingly. There remains insufficient information regarding the quality of PROMs in patients with soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs). The objectives of this systematic review were (1) to identify all PROMs used in STS patients and (2) to critically appraise the methodological quality of these PROMs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: There is a growing interest in personalized decision-making in oncology. According to the Integrated Oncological Decision-Making Model (IODM), decisions should be based on information from three domains: (1) medical technical information, (2) patients' general health status and (3) patients' preferences and goals. Little is known about what kind of tool/strategy is used to collect the information, by whom this is collected (nurse, clinician) when this is collected (moment in the care pathway), and how this information should be collected and integrated within decision-making in oncological care pathways, and what its impact is.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo identify older surgical cancer patients at risk of decreased postoperative recovery of physical activity (PA), this study assesses whether preoperative radiological sarcopenia (RS) is associated with a decreased ability to return to baseline PA. RS was defined as decreased psoas muscle mass or -density by gender-specific cut-offs on CT-scans at level of vertebra L3. PA was assessed as steps/day measured with PA tracker and recovery of PA was defined as >90% of preoperative steps/day at 3 months postoperatively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Medical consultations with older patients often include triadic conversations and decision-making processes involving physicians, patients, and family members. The presence of family members may change the communication dynamics and therefore increase the complexity of the consultation and decision-making process.
Objective: This study explored associations between physicians' shared decision-making (SDM) behaviour and patients' and family members' participation in the decision-making process.
Background: There is a lack of evidence regarding the relationship between family involvement and outcomes in gastrointestinal oncology patients after surgery. To evaluate the effect of a family involvement program for patients undergoing oncologic gastrointestinal surgery on unplanned readmissions within 30 days after surgery.
Methods: A multicenter patient-preference cohort study compared 2 groups: patients who participated in the family involvement program versus usual care.
Background: Cognitive impairment affects nearly half of vascular surgery patients, but its association with postoperative outcomes remains poorly understood. This study explores the link between preoperative cognitive performance and postoperative complications, including postoperative delirium, in vascular surgery patients.
Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted on vascular surgery patients aged ≥65.
Background: Especially in the era of successful systemic therapy, there is an urgent need to detect early disease recurrence in stage III melanoma patients. This study investigates if serum S100 calcium-binding protein B (S100B) can detect disease recurrence in stage III melanoma patients.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG).
Background: To estimate whether the benefits of aortic aneurysm repair will outweigh the risks, determining individual risks is essential. This single-center prospective cohort study aimed to compare the association of functional tools with postoperative complications in older patients undergoing aortic aneurysm repair.
Methods: Ninety-eight patients (≥65 years) who underwent aortic aneurysm repair were included.
Aim: To gain more insight into how nurses experience a participatory live music practice in relation to their ability to deliver compassionate care to medically hospitalised patients.
Design: Qualitative interpretive design.
Methods: Sixteen nurses participating in a live music practice with patients were interviewed using in-depth interviews with open-ended questions.
Objective: This scoping review summarises health literacy and disease knowledge in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) or peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and the influencing factors.
Data Sources: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, PsychINFO, and CINAHL covering the period January 2012 to October 2022.
Review Methods: This scoping review was undertaken in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR).
Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common complication in older patients with cancer and is associated with decreased quality of life and increased disability and mortality rates. Systemic inflammation resulting in neuroinflammation is considered important in the pathogenesis of POCD. The aim of this study was to explore the association between the early surgery-induced inflammatory response and POCD within 3 months after surgery in older cancer patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Evaluation of Groin Lymphadenectomy Extent for Melanoma (EAGLE FM) study sought to address the question of whether to perform inguinal (IL) or ilio-inguinal lymphadenectomy (I-IL) for patients with inguinal nodal metastatic melanoma who have no clinical or imaging evidence of pelvic disease. Primary outcome measure was disease-free survival at 5 years, and secondary endpoints included lymphoedema.
Methods: EAGLE FM was designed to recruit 634 patients but closed with 88 patients randomised because of slow recruitment and changes in melanoma management.
Objective: To assess incentive changes on resident publication behavior. In 2020, we demonstrated the positive effect of an unlimited $1000 publishing incentive for Urology residents. Following this publication, institutional changes led to a limit of a single $1000 publishing incentive per resident per year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations include a commitment to "leave no one behind" as a universal goal. To achieve this in geriatric oncology (GO) worldwide, it is important to understand the current state of GO at an international level. The International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) has several National Representatives (NRs) who act as SIOG's delegates in their respective countries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Because of perioperative splanchnic hypoperfusion, the gut wall becomes more permeable for intraluminal microbes to enter the splanchnic circulation, possibly contributing to development of complications. Hypoperfusion-related injured enterocytes release intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP) into plasma, which is used as proxy of intestinal integrity. This study investigates the occurrence of intestinal integrity loss during oncologic surgery, measured by I-FABP change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: There is a growing interest in the involvement of family members of older patients with cancer in decision-making processes. The aim of this study is to identify how and to what extent family members, together with patients and physicians, are involved in triadic decision-making processes in clinical practice.
Materials And Methods: This study was conducted using an exploratory observational design.
This feasibility study aims to explore the use of three-dimensional virtual surgical planning to preoperatively determine the need for reconstructive surgery following resection of an extremity soft-tissue sarcoma. As flap reconstruction is performed more often in advanced disease, we hypothesized that tumor volume would be larger in the group of patients that had undergone flap reconstruction. All patients that were treated by surgical resection for an extremity soft-tissue sarcoma between 1 January 2016 and 1 October 2019 in the University Medical Center Groningen were included retrospectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVulnerable patients are at risk for neuroinflammation-mediated post-operative complications, including depression (POD) and cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Zucker rats, expressing multiple risk factors for post-operative complications in humans, may provide a clinically relevant model to study pathophysiology and explore potential interventions. J147, a newly developed anti-dementia drug, was shown to prevent POCD in young healthy rats, and improved early post-surgical recovery in Zucker rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Psychophysiol Biofeedback
March 2024
It's known that surgery elicits a stress response involving the autonomic nervous system (ANS) which is important in general recovery but can also have detrimental effects in older patients. Music seems to positively effect postoperative recovery, although the mechanism requires further unravelling. Our objective was to explore the response of the ANS to live bedside music in older surgical patients, by using heart rate variability (HRV) as a proxy.
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