Insomnia Prevalence and Correlates in Cancer Patients Undergoing Treatment.

Background: Insomnia is the most common sleep disturbance among cancer patients undergoing active treatment. If untreated, it is associated with significant physical and psychological health consequences. Prior efforts to determine insomnia prevalence and correlates have primarily assessed patients in clinical trials, in limited disease groups, and excluding important patient subgroups.

Framework for integrating electronic patient-reported data in routine cancer care: an Oncology Intake Questionnaire.

Objective: As part of ongoing implementation of electronic patient-reported outcome tools at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, here we describe the development of the electronic New Patient Intake Questionnaire.

Materials And Methods: The original New Patient Intake Questionnaire includes a review of symptoms, oncology history, family history, health behaviors, health and social status, health literacy and numeracy, which was modified for integration into the EHR using content determination, build and configuration, implementation, analytics, and interventions. The engagement of key stakeholders, including patients, clinical staff, and providers, throughout the development and deployment of the electronic Questionnaire was crucial to producing a successful tool.

Corticosteroids prevent myofibroblast accumulation and airway remodeling in mice.

At present there are conflicting results from studies investigating the role of corticosteroids in inhibiting airway remodeling in asthma. We have used a mouse model to determine whether administration of corticosteroids prevents the development of allergen-induced structural features of airway remodeling. Mice treated with corticosteroids were subjected to repetitive ovalbumin (OVA) challenge for 3 mo, at which time levels of peribronchial fibrosis and the thickness of the peribronchial smooth muscle layer were assessed by immunohistology, levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 by ELISA, and the number of alpha-smooth muscle actin+/Col-1+ peribronchial myofibroblasts by immunohistochemistry.