Development and implementation of a 3d-HDR brachytherapy program for cervical cancer in a sub-Saharan African centre.

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in Nigeria where, the gap between need for, and access to, radiation therapy including brachytherapy is significant. This report documents the implementation of the first three-dimensional high-dose-rate (3D-HDR) brachytherapy service for cervical cancer in Nigeria.

Purpose: This report details the steps taken to implement the 3D-HDR brachytherapy program, the challenges faced, and the adaptive strategies employed to overcome them.

The effects of mass media messages, perceived susceptibility and self-rated health on public attitude towards COVID-19 in South Africa.

Objectives: South Africa was the worst affected country in Africa by the COVID-19 pandemic and it is important to interrogate the attitude of the populace towards the pandemic for future interventions. Therefore, this study examined effects of mass media messages, susceptibility to COVID-19 and self-rated health on the attitudes of South Africans towards the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Data was from the National Income Dynamics Study - Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) of 2021 which is a nationally representative panel survey of about 7,000 South African individuals in all the nine provinces.

A guide to global access to HPV vaccination to all women in low- and middle-income countries; a minireview of innovation and equity.

Introduction: Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus (HV), and accounts for more than 311,000 preventable deaths annually, with 85% occurring in low-and middle-income countries. Despite being preventable through screening and screening, significant barriers to implementing HPV vaccination persist in developing nations. This review study aims to identify these barriers and propose innovative, evidence-based solutions to improve vaccination rates and reduce cervical cancer mortality.

Consumer product-related female genital injuries in the USA from 2013 to 2022.

Background: Consumer product-related genital injuries in females across all age groups are understudied. Existing research focuses primarily on paediatric populations. We aimed to determine characteristics, trends and predictors of hospitalisation.

Radiation-associated breast angiosarcoma after strut-adjusted volume implant brachytherapy.

Angiosarcoma is a rare malignancy that may classically occur in the post-treatment breast. Radiation and post-treatment edema have been identified in the literature as causative risk factors. Modern treatment innovations have provided patients with more targeted radiation therapy and more conservative surgical options, which may individually limit exposure to these risk factors.

Evaluating the knowledge of stroke management among Nigerian medical doctors.

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Nigeria. Effective stroke management is essential to reduce morbidity and mortality. Few trained neurologists in Nigeria are mostly concentrated in the cities, making non-specialists the backbone of acute stroke management in Nigeria.

Neural network dose prediction for cervical brachytherapy: Overcoming data scarcity for applicator-specific models.

Background: 3D neural network dose predictions are useful for automating brachytherapy (BT) treatment planning for cervical cancer. Cervical BT can be delivered with numerous applicators, which necessitates developing models that generalize to multiple applicator types. The variability and scarcity of data for any given applicator type poses challenges for deep learning.

Trends, Sociodemographic and Hospital-Level Factors Associated with Palliative Care Utilization Among Metastatic Prostate Cancer Patients.

Several factors are reported to be associated with palliative care utilization among patients with various cancers, but literature is lacking on metastatic prostate cancer (MPC) specific factors. Early integration of palliative care in management of MPC patients could increase their quality of life and overall outcomes. Retrospective longitudinal analyses were conducted using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data (2010 - 2019).

Transferring care to enhance access to early-phase cancer clinical trials: Protocol to evaluate a novel program.

Involving diverse populations in early-phase (phase I and II) cancer clinical trials is critical to informed therapeutic development. However, given the growing costs and complexities of early-phase trials, trial activation and enrollment barriers may be greatest for these studies at healthcare facilities that provide care to the most diverse patient groups, including those in historically underserved communities (e.g.

Predicting treatment plan approval probability for high-dose-rate brachytherapy of cervical cancer using adversarial deep learning.

Predicting the probability of having the plan approved by the physician is important for automatic treatment planning. Driven by the mathematical foundation of deep learning that can use a deep neural network to represent functions accurately and flexibly, we developed a deep-learning framework that learns the probability of plan approval for cervical cancer high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDRBT).The system consisted of a dose prediction network (DPN) and a plan-approval probability network (PPN).

Survey of Teleneurology Use by Neurologists in a Low-Middle Income Country.

Background Teleneurology has been in existence for decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic has escalated its widespread usage. Neurological conditions are a leading cause of death globally, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the bulk of the burden. Nigeria has few trained neurologists with the few available concentrated in an urban region.

The accuracy of artificial intelligence deformed nodal structures in cervical online cone-beam-based adaptive radiotherapy.

Background And Purpose: Online cone-beam-based adaptive radiotherapy (ART) adjusts for anatomical changes during external beam radiotherapy. However, limited cone-beam image quality complicates nodal contouring. Despite this challenge, artificial-intelligence guided deformation (AID) can auto-generate nodal contours.

A Tale of Two Hospitals: Effect of Access to Care Through a Safety Net Hospital on Adjuvant Therapy, Imaging Compliance and 5-Year Survival Rates Compared to the University Hospital Served by the Same Breast Cancer Clinical Teams.

Rationale And Objectives: To compare rates of guideline-concordant care, imaging surveillance, recurrence and survival outcomes between a safety-net (SNH) and tertiary-care University Hospital (UH) served by the same breast cancer clinical teams.

Materials And Methods: 647 women with newly diagnosed breast cancer treated in affiliated SNH and UH between 11.1.

MICROBACTERIAL PROFILE OF SURGICAL SITE INFECTION AND THEIR PATTERN OF SENSITIVITY IN TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN NORTH CENTRAL HOSPITAL, NIGERIA.

Background: Surgical site infections (SSI) remain a problem in surgical practice despite the improvement in advanced technology and the use of antibiotics. Also, there is also a growing menace of antibiotic resistance which poses a great challenge in treating SSI. The study aimed to find out the most common bacterial pathogens responsible for surgical site infection and their antibiotic sensitivity profile.

Improved Dosimetry with Daily Online Adaptive Radiotherapy for Cervical Cancer: Waltzing the Pear.

Aims: Standard of care radiotherapy for locally advanced cervical cancer includes large margins to ensure the uterocervix remains within the treatment fields over the course of treatment. Daily online cone-beam adaptive radiotherapy corrects for interfractional changes by adjusting the plan to match the target position during each treatment session, thus allowing for significantly reduced clinical target volume (CTV) to planning target volume (PTV) margins. We hypothesise that reduced margins from daily online adaptive radiotherapy will reduce organ at risk dose without compromising target coverage.

Outcomes and predictors of amputation-free survival in patients undergoing below-knee popliteal-distal bypass.

Objective: The infrageniculate popliteal artery is a potential source for inflow in lower extremity bypass surgery in patients with isolated tibial artery disease. The objective of our study was to assess the short- and long-term outcomes of popliteal-distal bypasses using data from the Vascular Quality Initiative (VQI).

Methods: The VQI registry was queried between 2003 and 2021 for patients undergoing surgical revascularizations with the below-knee popliteal artery serving as inflow.

Definitive radiation for advanced cervix cancer is not associated with vaginal shortening-a prospective vaginal length and dose correlation.

Purpose: Prospectively measure change in vaginal length after definitive chemoradiation (C-EBRT) with Intracavitary Brachytherapy (ICBT) for locally advanced cervix cancer (LACC) and correlate with vaginal dose (VD).

Materials And Methods: Twenty one female patients with LACC receiving C-EBRT and ICBT underwent serial vaginal length (VL) measurements. An initial measurement was made at the time of the first ICBT procedure and subsequently at 3 month intervals up to 1 year post radiation.

Willingness of college students aged 10 to 24 years to get vaccinated against COVID-19 disease: a cross-sectional study in South-East Nigeria.

Background: Willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is a topical issue that may change the course and distribution of the pandemic in the country.

Objectives: This study was aimed to determine the willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine among college adolescents and associated factors.

Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study carried out among one thousand college adolescents in six secondary schools in Enugu from April to August 2021.

Prevalence and Distribution of Postvoid Residual Urine Volume in a Hospital-Based Sample of Men with Symptomatic Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia.

Background: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a known cause of bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) in aging men. Patients present with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), elevated postvoid residual urine (PVR), and reduced peak flow rate of urine. Although urodynamic study is the gold standard for diagnosing and quantifying BOO, it is invasive and as such urologists in their routine practice frequently rely on less invasive methods like PVR estimation to objectively assess BOO.

Interventions for improving coverage of childhood immunisation in low- and middle-income countries.

Background: Immunisation plays a major role in reducing childhood morbidity and mortality. Getting children immunised against potentially fatal and debilitating vaccine-preventable diseases remains a challenge despite the availability of efficacious vaccines, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. With the introduction of new vaccines, this becomes increasingly difficult.