Spatial Deconvolution of Cell Types and Cell States at Scale Utilizing TACIT.

Identifying cell types and states remains a time-consuming, error-prone challenge for spatial biology. While deep learning is increasingly used, it is difficult to generalize due to variability at the level of cells, neighborhoods, and niches in health and disease. To address this, we developed TACIT, an unsupervised algorithm for cell annotation using predefined signatures that operates without training data.

Spatial Deconvolution of Cell Types and Cell States at Scale Utilizing TACIT.

Identifying cell types and states remains a time-consuming and error-prone challenge for spatial biology. While deep learning is increasingly used, it is difficult to generalize due to variability at the level of cells, neighborhoods, and niches in health and disease. To address this, we developed TACIT, an unsupervised algorithm for cell annotation using predefined signatures that operates without training data, using unbiased thresholding to distinguish positive cells from background, focusing on relevant markers to identify ambiguous cells in multiomic assays.

Social Determinants of Health and Informed Consent Comprehension for Pediatric Cancer Clinical Trials.

Importance: Ensuring valid informed consent (IC) prior to enrollment in clinical trials is a fundamental ethical right.

Objective: To assess whether social determinants of health (SDOH) and related sociocontextual factors are associated with parental IC comprehension in therapeutic childhood cancer clinical trials.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study prospectively enrolled 223 parents of children with newly diagnosed cancer at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, a large quaternary academic center in California, from October 1, 2014, to March 31, 2021.

Assessment of Factors Associated With Parental Perceptions of Voluntary Decisions About Child Participation in Leukemia Clinical Trials.

Importance: Obtaining voluntary informed consent prior to enrollment in clinical trials is a fundamental ethical requirement.

Objective: To assess whether health literacy, contextual factors, or sociodemographic characteristics are associated with perception of voluntariness among parents who had consented for their child's participation in a leukemia therapeutic clinical trial.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study prospectively enrolled 97 parents of children diagnosed as having leukemia at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego, a large tertiary academic center in California, from 2014 to 2017.

Improving Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Survival Disparities in the United States-Mexico Border Region: A Cross-Border Initiative Between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico.

Purpose: Treatment of children with CNS tumors (CNSTs) demands a complex, interdisciplinary approach that is rarely available in low- and middle-income countries. We established the Cross-Border Neuro-Oncology Program (CBNP) between Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego (RCHSD), and Hospital General, Tijuana (HGT), Mexico, to provide access to neuro-oncology care, including neurosurgic services, for children with CNSTs diagnosed at HGT. Our purpose was to assess the feasibility of the CBNP across the United States-Mexico border and improve survival for children with CNSTs at HGT by implementing the CBNP.