Communication and collaboration skills training in radiation oncology: A quantitative validation survey.

Introduction: Communication and collaboration are integral in radiation oncology practice. A recently published qualitative study identified several deficiencies in skills development for Australian/New Zealand trainees. We aim to validate these findings to guide curriculum development.

Comparison of three analgesic regimens in women undergoing cervical brachytherapy.

Purpose: Effective periprocedural analgesia is an important aspect of cervical brachytherapy delivery, with implications for patient comfort and attendance for subsequent fractions. We compared the efficacy and safety of three analgesic modalities: intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCA), continuous epidural infusion (CEI) and programmed-intermittent epidural bolus with patient-controlled epidural analgesia (PIEB-PCEA).

Methods And Materials: Ninety-seven brachytherapy episodes involving 36 patients between July 2016 and June 2019 in a single tertiary center were retrospectively reviewed.

A Clinician's Guide to Cancer-Derived Exosomes: Immune Interactions and Therapeutic Implications.

Understanding of the role of immunity in the regulation of cancer growth continues to rapidly increase. This is fuelled by the impressive results yielded in recent years by immune checkpoint inhibitors, which block regulatory pathways to increase immune-mediated cancer destruction. Exosomes are cell-secreted membranous nanoscale vesicles that play important roles in regulating physiological and pathophysiological processes.

Endobronchial brachytherapy in the management of lung malignancies: 20 years of experience in an Australian center.

Objectives: Management of end-stage lung cancers focuses on symptom control, requiring multimodality management. Endobronchial brachytherapy (EBB) is an evidence-based approach allowing safe delivery of clinically meaningful radiation doses. We provide a summary of treatment characteristics and clinical outcomes of EBB in a single center.

Qualitative investigation of the reasons behind opposition to water fluoridation in regional NSW, Australia.

Objectives: To investigate reasons behind strong opposition to water fluoridation in regional New South Wales, Australia, and to make recommendations to improve community engagement.

Importance: Few studies have used qualitative methodologies to understand the reasons for strong antifluoridation views. An understanding of these reasons could be useful when designing public campaigns to combat the strong antifluoridation message.

Antimicrobials: a global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA).

Intra-abdominal infections (IAI) are an important cause of morbidity and are frequently associated with poor prognosis, particularly in high-risk patients. The cornerstones in the management of complicated IAIs are timely effective source control with appropriate antimicrobial therapy. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is important in the management of intra-abdominal infections and must be broad enough to cover all likely organisms because inappropriate initial antimicrobial therapy is associated with poor patient outcomes and the development of bacterial resistance.

Educational Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention Ineffective in Changing Surgical Prophylactic Antibiotic Prescribing.

Background: High rates of inappropriate use of prophylactic antibiotics in surgery continue to be reported in the literature, with many institutions designing interventions aimed at improving prescription. This study evaluates the surgical arm of a clinician-focused educational antimicrobial stewardship program implemented in February 2014 at Blacktown Hospital, Australia.

Methods: A before-after analysis of the surgical antibiotic prophylaxis intervention was conducted at Blacktown Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.

Adherence to Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis Guidelines in New South Wales, Australia: Identifying Deficiencies and Regression Analysis of Contributing Factors.

Background: Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis is frequently reported in the literature to be suboptimal, a finding having both clinical and public health implications. This study aimed to calculate rates and patterns of adherence to guidelines at two sites and identify extrinsic contributing factors.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted over two 12-mo periods during 2013-2014 at the metropolitan Blacktown Hospital and regional Lismore Base Hospital, New South Wales, Australia.

TGFbeta is responsible for skin tumour infiltration by macrophages enabling the tumours to escape immune destruction.

Infiltration of skin tumours by macrophages is an important step in tumour progression, although the mechanisms of macrophage recruitment to the tumour mass and the subsequent effects on tumour growth are poorly understood. Transfecting a murine regressing skin tumour with the gene for transforming growth factor (TGF)beta enabled the tumours to grow progressively in vivo thus allowing us to study the role of this cytokine in tumour growth. Flow cytometry was used to show that TGFbeta-mediated tumour progression was accompanied by an increase in tumour-associated macrophages (TAM) and a decrease in tumour-infiltrating dendritic cells (DCs).