Active Monitoring With or Without Endocrine Therapy for Low-Risk Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: The COMET Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Active monitoring for low-risk ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast has been proposed as an alternative to guideline-concordant care, but the safety of this approach is unknown.

Objective: To compare rates of invasive cancer in patients with low-risk DCIS receiving active monitoring vs guideline-concordant care.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective, randomized noninferiority trial enrolling 995 women aged 40 years or older with a new diagnosis of hormone receptor-positive grade 1 or grade 2 DCIS without invasive cancer at 100 US Alliance Cancer Cooperative Group clinical trial sites from 2017 to 2023.

Temporal Trends in Thyroid Nodule Size on Ultrasonography: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: In recent years, concern has grown around the overdetection of thyroid cancer. Changes to thyroid nodule risk stratification systems and guidelines were made to improve diagnostic yield. It is not known how these advancements have affected the size of thyroid nodules reported on ultrasonography over time.

Thyroid Cancer Incidence During 2020 to 2021 COVID-19 Variant Waves.

Importance: How rates of thyroid cancer diagnosis were affected by the emergence of COVID-19 variants during the 2020 to 2021 era of the pandemic has not been described.

Objective: To estimate the total number of undiagnosed cases of thyroid cancer, by histologic type, during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021) by comparing observed to expected incidence and to test for changes in size of cancer at incidence during the same period compared to prior years.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This longitudinal study analyzed trends in thyroid cancer diagnoses from 2016 to 2021 among US adults using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 22 (SEER-22) program database.

SQUIRE-SIM (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence for SIMulation): Publication Guidelines for Simulation-Based Quality Improvement Projects.

Introduction: With increased incorporation of simulation-based methodologies into quality improvement activities, standards for reporting on simulation-specific elements in healthcare improvement research are needed.

Methods: We followed established consensus process methodology to iteratively create simulation-based extensions for SQUIRE 2.0 reporting guidelines.

The Sustained Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Vascular Surgical Care Delivery.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated postponement of vascular surgery procedures nationally. Whether procedure volumes have since recovered remains undefined. Therefore, our objective was to quantify changes in procedure volumes and determine whether surgical volume has returned to its prepandemic baseline.

PREF-NET: a patient preference and experience study of lanreotide autogel administered in the home versus hospital setting among patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours in the UK.

Purpose: PREF-NET reported patients' experience of Somatuline® (lanreotide) Autogel® (LAN) administration at home and in hospital among patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs).

Methods: PREF-NET was a multicentre, cross-sectional study of UK adults (aged ≥ 18 years) with GEP-NETs receiving a stable dose of LAN, which comprised of (1) a quantitative online survey, and (2) qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with a subgroup of survey respondents. The primary objective was the description of overall patient preference for home versus hospital administration of LAN.

A Retrospective Analysis of Surgical Acuity & Procedure Volume Before & During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Introduction: In March 2020, the American College of Surgeons recommended postponing elective procedures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We used Medicare claims to analyze changes in surgical and interventional procedure volumes from 2016 to 2021.

Methods: We studied 37 common surgical and interventional procedures using 5% Medicare claims files from January 1, 2016, through December 31, 2021.

Hypertension Control During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Cohort Study Among US Veterans.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Objective: We sought to examine whether disruptions in follow-up intervals contributed to hypertension control.

Background: Disruptions in health care were widespread during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Modeling Thyroid Cancer Epidemiology in the United States Using Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Microsimulation Model.

Objectives: Thyroid cancer incidence increased over 200% from 1992 to 2018, whereas mortality rates had not increased proportionately. The increased incidence has been attributed primarily to the detection of subclinical disease, raising important questions related to thyroid cancer control. We developed the Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Microsimulation model (PATCAM) to answer them, including the impact of overdiagnosis on thyroid cancer incidence.

Excess mortality in US Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic: an individual-level cohort study.

Background: Most analyses of excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic have employed aggregate data. Individual-level data from the largest integrated healthcare system in the US may enhance understanding of excess mortality.

Methods: We performed an observational cohort study following patients receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) between 1 March 2018 and 28 February 2022.

A New Personalized Oral Cancer Survival Calculator to Estimate Risk of Death From Both Oral Cancer and Other Causes.

Importance: Standard cancer prognosis models typically do not include much specificity in characterizing competing illnesses or general health status when providing prognosis estimates, limiting their utility for individuals, who must consider their cancer in the context of their overall health. This is especially true for patients with oral cancer, who frequently have competing illnesses.

Objective: To describe a statistical framework and accompanying new publicly available calculator that provides personalized estimates of the probability of a patient surviving or dying from cancer or other causes, using oral cancer as the first data set.

Key Points for Clinicians About the SEER Oral Cancer Survival Calculator.

Importance: In the setting of a new cancer diagnosis, the focus is usually on the cancer as the main threat to survival, but people may have other conditions that pose an equal or greater threat to their life than their cancer: a competing risk of death. This is especially true for patients who have cancer of the oral cavity, because prolonged exposure to alcohol and tobacco are risk factors for cancer in this location but also can result in medical conditions with the potential to shorten life expectancy, competing as a cause of death that may intervene in conjunction with or before the cancer.

Observations: A calculator designed for public use has been released that allows patients age 20 to 86 years who have a newly diagnosed oral cancer to obtain estimates of their health status-adjusted age, life expectancy in the absence of the cancer, and probability of surviving, dying of the cancer, or dying of other causes within 1 to 10 years after diagnosis.

Absolute and relative excess mortality across demographic and clinical subgroups during the COVID-19 pandemic: an individual-level cohort study from a nationwide healthcare system of US Veterans.

Background: Most analyses of excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic have employed aggregate data. Individual-level data from the largest integrated healthcare system in the US may enhance understanding of excess mortality.

Methods: We performed an observational cohort study following patients receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) between 1 March 2018 and 28 February 2022.

Excess Mortality Among Patients in the Veterans Affairs Health System Compared With the Overall US Population During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Importance: During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a substantial increase in the rate of death in the United States. It is unclear whether those who had access to comprehensive medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system had different death rates compared with the overall US population.

Objective: To quantify and compare the increase in death rates during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic between individuals who received comprehensive medical care through the VA health care system and those in the general US population.

Response to Toshihide Tsuda, Yumiko Miyano and Eiji Yamamoto [1].

Background: Using a toolkit approach, Tsuda et al. critiqued work carried out by or in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC/WHO), including the IARC technical publication No. 46 on "Thyroid health monitoring after nuclear accidents" (TM-NUC), the project on nuclear emergency situations and improvement on medical and health surveillance (SHAMISEN), and the IARC-led work on global thyroid cancer incidence patterns as per IARC core mandate.

Emerging Imaging Technologies for Parathyroid Gland Identification and Vascular Assessment in Thyroid Surgery: A Review From the American Head and Neck Society Endocrine Surgery Section.

Importance: Identification and preservation of parathyroid glands (PGs) remain challenging despite advances in surgical techniques. Considerable morbidity and even mortality result from hypoparathyroidism caused by devascularization or inadvertent removal of PGs. Emerging imaging technologies hold promise to improve identification and preservation of PGs during thyroid surgery.

Analysis of Unmet Information Needs Among Patients With Thyroid Cancer.

Importance: Counseling prior to thyroid cancer (TC) treatment is an essential component of informed consent. An informed patient affects treatment-related expectations and patient engagement, factors that contribute significantly to patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes.

Objective: To describe experiences with pretreatment counseling among survivors of TC and to test factors associated with self-reported treatment meeting expectations.

Trends in Incidence and Mortality of Larynx Cancer in the US.

Importance: Larynx cancer is associated with considerable morbidity for patients and has a high mortality rate. Historical analyses showed that the incidence of larynx cancer was decreasing but the mortality was not similarly improving.

Objective: To assess whether incidence and mortality trends in larynx cancer in the US have improved.