Renovating the Commission on Cancer's Quality Measure Portfolio.

Importance: Nearly 75% of newly diagnosed cancer patients in the United States will receive care from a hospital that is accredited by the Commission on Cancer (CoC). To support hospitals in their quality assurance efforts, the CoC maintains a portfolio of quality measures to give hospitals compliance data with select best practices for cancer care. As the CoC quality measures have evolved over recent years, many clinicians may lack awareness of the intent and content of the measure portfolio, as well as the mechanism by which new measures originate.

Factors associated with smoking abstinence after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer.

Smoking cessation after a diagnosis of lung cancer is associated with improved outcomes, including quality of life and survival. The research presented here is based on data obtained from sequential interviews with early stage lung cancer patients in Kentucky, on their smoking patterns at four time points: (1) six months before enrollment in the study, before diagnosis, (2) at enrollment (shortly after surgical resection), (3) three months post-enrollment, and (4) six months post-enrollment. A number of covariates were considered to examine the factors associated with smoking abstinence and rebound trajectories.

A randomized, double-blind trial comparing continuous thoracic epidural bupivacaine with and without opioid in contrast to a continuous paravertebral infusion of bupivacaine for post-thoracotomy pain.

Objective: To compare the results of continuous epidural bupivacaine analgesia with and without hydromorphone to continuous paravertebral analgesia with bupivcaine in patients with post-thoracotomy pain.

Design: A prospective, randomized, double-blinded trial.

Setting: A teaching hospital.

99mTc-Depreotide chest SPECT demonstrates pulmonary metastases from renal cell carcinoma.

99mTc-Depreotide has been used on single pulmonary nodules to identify somatostatin receptor-positive lung cancer. We report that pulmonary metastases of a 78-y-old man with postradical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma were detected by (99m)Tc-depreotide chest SPECT. Thus, (99m)Tc-depreotide chest SPECT can be used to diagnose secondary lung cancer, such as pulmonary metastases from renal cell carcinoma with somatostatin receptor-positive tumor, other than primary lung cancer.

Twenty years of progress in congenital diaphragmatic hernia at the University of Florida.

Over the past 20 years the clinical paradigms underlying the care of children with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) have undergone profound changes. The purpose of this work is to provide an historic review of research and clinical studies related to CDH at the University of Florida (UF) and Shands Children's Hospital during the chairmanship of Edward M. Copeland, III, M.