Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Access to Cancer Surgery: Analysis of Surgical Wait Times in British Columbia, Canada.

Objective: As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread, efforts were made to preserve resources for the anticipated surge of COVID-19 patients in British Columbia, Canada. However, the relationship between COVID-19 hospitalizations and access to cancer surgery is unclear. In this project, we analyze the impact of COVID-19 patient volumes on wait time for cancer surgery.

The clinical impact of COVID-19 on patients with cancer in British Columbia: An observational study.

Objective: We evaluated survival outcomes for patients with cancer and COVID-19 in this population-based study.

Methods: A total of 631 patients who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and were seen at BC Cancer between 03/03/2020 and 01/21/2021 were included, of whom 506 had a diagnosis of cancer and PCR-confirmed positive test for coronavirus disease 2019. Patient clinical characteristics were retrospectively reviewed and the influence of demographic data, cancer diagnosis, comorbidities, and anticancer treatment(s) on survival following severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection were analyzed.

Real world duration of curative intent breast, colorectal, non-small cell lung, and prostate cancer treatment.

Background: Advances in curative treatment for breast, colorectal, NSCLC and prostate cancer have led to improvements in cancer survival. Cancer treatment and recovery time can vary depending on the recommended modalities and intensity of therapy. Our objective was to determine the current real world duration of curative treatments for the four common cancers.

Performance of the Fecal Immunochemical Test in Patients With a Family History of Colorectal Cancer.

Objective: To assess the performance of a fecal immunochemical test (FIT) among participants of a population-based colorectal cancer (CRC) screening program with one or more first-degree relatives (FDR) with CRC.

Methods: Asymptomatic 50 to 74 years olds with a FDR diagnosed with CRC, enrolled in a colon screening program completed FIT (two samples, cut-off 20 µg Hemoglobin/gram feces) and underwent colonoscopy. FIT-interval CRCs were identified from the British Columbia cancer registry.

Nodal staging affects adjuvant treatment choices in elderly patients with clinically node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

Background: In response to Choosing Wisely recommendations that sentinel lymph node biopsy (slnb) should not be routinely performed in elderly patients with node-negative (cN0), estrogen receptor-positive (er+) breast cancer, we sought to evaluate how nodal staging affects adjuvant treatment in this population.

Methods: From a prospective database, we identified patients 70 or more years of age with cN0 breast cancer treated with surgery for er+ her2-negative invasive disease during 2012-2016. We determined rates of, and factors associated with, nodal positivity (pN+), and compared the use of adjuvant radiation (rt) and systemic therapy by nodal status.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors significantly improved survival outcomes in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumour: a multi-institutional cohort study.

Background: The real-world impact of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (tkis) in clinical practice for gastrointestinal stromal tumour (gist) has not been extensively reported. We sought to assess how outcomes have changed over the eras and to evaluate the effect of access to imatinib and sunitinib on survival in patients with unresectable or metastatic gist in British Columbia.

Methods: Patients with metastatic or unresectable gist were allocated to one of three eras: pre-2002, 2002-2007, and post-2007 based on treatment availability (pre-imatinib, post-imatinib, and post-sunitinib).

Uptake and impact of synoptic reporting in a community care setting.

Background: Breast cancer surgeries have traditionally been documented in narrative reports. Narrative reports have been shown to be incomplete. Synoptic reports utilize standardized templates to record data and have emerged as an alternative to narrative reports.

Electronic Stopping of Slow Protons in Oxides: Scaling Properties.

Electronic stopping of slow protons in ZnO, VO_{2} (metal and semiconductor phases), HfO_{2}, and Ta_{2}O_{5} was investigated experimentally. As a comparison of the resulting stopping cross sections (SCS) to data for Al_{2}O_{3} and SiO_{2} reveals, electronic stopping of slow protons does not correlate with electronic properties of the specific material such as band gap energies. Instead, the oxygen 2p states are decisive, as corroborated by density functional theory calculations of the electronic densities of states.

Cancer in First Nations people living in British Columbia, Canada: an analysis of incidence and survival from 1993 to 2010.

Background: For First Nations (FN) peoples living in British Columbia (BC), little is known regarding cancer in the population. The aim of this study was to explore cancer incidence and survival in the FN population of BC and compare it to the non-FN population.

Methods: All new cancers diagnosed from 1993 to 2010 were linked to the First Nations Client File (FNCF).

Completeness of breast cancer operative reports in a community care setting.

Objectives: The narrative operative report represents the traditional means by which breast cancer surgery has been documented. Previous work has established that omissions occur in narrative operative reports produced in an academic setting. The goal of this study was to determine the completeness of breast cancer narrative operative reports produced in a community care setting and to explore the effect of a surgeon's case volume and years in practice on the completeness of these reports.

Prognostic significance of peritoneal cytology in low-intermediate risk endometrial cancer.

Objectives: There is uncertainty surrounding the prognostic value and clinical utility of peritoneal cytology in endometrial cancer. Our primary objective was to determine if positive cytology is associated with disease-free and overall survival in women treated surgically for endometrial cancer, specifically those with low or intermediate risk disease.

Methods: This was a retrospective population-based cohort study of British Columbia Cancer Registry patients who underwent surgery with peritoneal washings for endometrioid-type endometrial cancer from 2003 to 2009.

Correlating Quantitative Fecal Immunochemical Test Results with Neoplastic Findings on Colonoscopy in a Population-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Program: A Prospective Study.

. The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (CPAC) recommends a fecal immunochemical test- (FIT-) positive predictive value (PPV) for all adenomas of ≥50%. We sought to assess FIT performance among average-risk participants of the British Columbia Colon Screening Program (BCCSP).

Geometric constraints on phase coexistence in vanadium dioxide single crystals.

The appearance of stripe phases is a characteristic signature of strongly correlated quantum materials, and its origin in phase-changing materials has only recently been recognized as the result of the delicate balance between atomic and mesoscopic materials properties. A vanadium dioxide (VO) single crystal is one such strongly correlated material with stripe phases. Infrared nano-imaging on low-aspect-ratio, single-crystal VO microbeams decorated with resonant plasmonic nanoantennas reveals a novel herringbone pattern of coexisting metallic and insulating domains intercepted and altered by ferroelastic domains, unlike previous reports on high-aspect-ratio VO crystals where the coexisting metal/insulator domains appear as alternating stripe phases perpendicular to the growth axis.

Comparison of One versus Two Fecal Immunochemical Tests in the Detection of Colorectal Neoplasia in a Population-Based Colorectal Cancer Screening Program.

To determine the positive predictive value (PPV) of two versus one abnormal FIT in the detection of colorectal neoplasia in a Canadian population. Three communities enrolled in a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening pilot program from 01/2009 to 04/2013 using 2 FITs. Data collected included demographics, colonoscopy, pathology, and FIT results.

Performance of a quantitative fecal immunochemical test in a colorectal cancer screening pilot program: a prospective cohort study.

Background: British Columbia undertook a colorectal cancer screening pilot program in 3 communities. Our objective was to assess the performance of 2-specimen fecal immunochemical testing in the detection of colorectal neoplasms in this population-based screening program.

Methods: A prospective cohort of asymptomatic, average-risk people aged 50 to 74 years completed 2 quantitative fecal immunochemical tests every 2 years, with follow-up colonoscopy if the result of either test was positive.

Surgeon Volume, Patient Age, and Tumor-Related Factors Influence the Need for Re-Excision After Breast-Conserving Surgery.

Background: Breast-conserving surgery (BCS) is the preferred surgical approach for the majority of patients with early-stage breast cancer. There are frequent issues regarding pathologic margin status, requiring margin re-excision, and, in the literature, there is significant variability in re-excision rates, suggesting this is a potential quality-of-care issue. Understanding the patient-, disease-, and physician-related factors influencing reoperation rates is of importance in an effort to minimize this occurrence.

Impact of hospital volume on quality indicators for rectal cancer surgery in British Columbia, Canada.

Background: The relationship between hospital volume and patient outcomes remains controversial for rectal cancer.

Methods: This is a population-based database study. Patients treated with surgery for a stage I to III rectal adenocarcinoma from 2003 to 2009 were identified.

Impact of Using Audit Data to Improve the Evidence-Based Use of Single-Fraction Radiation Therapy for Bone Metastases in British Columbia.

Purpose: To assess the impact of a population-based intervention to increase the consistency and use of single-fraction radiation therapy (SFRT) for bone metastases.

Methods And Materials: In 2012, an audit of radiation therapy prescriptions for bone metastases in British Columbia identified significant interphysician and -center (26%-73%) variation in the use of SFRT. Anonymous physician-level and identifiable regional cancer center SFRT use data were presented to all radiation oncologists, together with published guidelines, meta-analyses, and recommendations from practice leaders.

Prognostic factors and sites of metastasis in unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Due to differences in natural history and therapy, clinical trials of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer have recently been subdivided into unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) and metastatic disease. We aimed to evaluate prognostic factors in LAPC patients who were treated with first-line chemotherapy and describe patterns of disease progression. Patients with LAPC who initiated first-line palliative chemotherapy, 2001-2011 at the BC Cancer Agency were included.

Instantaneous band gap collapse in photoexcited monoclinic VO2 due to photocarrier doping.

Using femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy we demonstrate that photoexcitation transforms monoclinic VO2 quasi-instantaneously into a metal. Thereby, we exclude an 80 fs structural bottleneck for the photoinduced electronic phase transition of VO2. First-principles many-body perturbation theory calculations reveal a high sensitivity of the VO2 band gap to variations of the dynamically screened Coulomb interaction, supporting a fully electronically driven isostructural insulator-to-metal transition.

Influence of nurse navigation on wait times for breast cancer care in a Canadian regional cancer center.

Background: The wait times for breast cancer care in our region do not meet acceptable benchmarks. We implemented the Interior Breast Rapid Access Investigation and Diagnosis (IB-RAPID) nurse navigation program to address this issue.

Methods: The IB-RAPID prospective database was reviewed for patients entering the program between April 1, 2011 and April 30, 2012 (2011/2012 cohort), and was compared with patients from the same area in 2010.

The significance of combination chemotherapy in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective: Since the publication of International Collaborative Ovarian Neoplasm 3, various practice patterns have evolved with respect to practice patterns and survival among women with epithelial ovarian cancer in British Columbia, Canada. The objectives of this study were to evaluate different strategies for first-line chemotherapy in ovarian cancer and to determine their effect on survival at a population level.

Methods And Materials: This was a retrospective population-based cohort study of 854 women with epithelial ovarian cancer in British Columbia from 2005 to 2008.

A randomized placebo-controlled trial of manuka honey for radiation-induced oral mucositis.

Background: Few treatments have the potential to reduce the severity of radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer patients. Some small studies have suggested that organic honey may be a useful preventive treatment.

Methods: This investigator-initiated double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial investigated whether honey reduced the severity of radiation-induced oral mucositis (ROM).

Differences between referred and nonreferred patients in cancer research.

Background: In Canada, provincial cancer registries have been established to provide rigorous population-based data for patients with colorectal cancer. Databases maintained by regional cancer agencies contain a broader scope of information and have been used as a surrogate source of information for colorectal cancer research. It is unclear whether these data can be reliably extrapolated to all patients affected by colorectal cancer.

Stage at diagnosis and colorectal cancer survival in six high-income countries: a population-based study of patients diagnosed during 2000-2007.

Background: Large international differences in colorectal cancer survival exist, even between countries with similar healthcare. We investigate the extent to which stage at diagnosis explains these differences.

Methods: Data from population-based cancer registries in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK were analysed for 313 852 patients diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer during 2000-2007.