Brief Report: Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients With Thoracic SMARCA4-Deficient Undifferentiated Tumors.

Introduction: Thoracic SMARCA4-deficient undifferentiated tumors (SMARCA4-UTs) are a recently defined group of aggressive cancers in which the effectiveness of standard treatments for lung cancer is unknown.

Methods: We collected clinical, pathologic, and demographic variables from five institutions for patients whose tumors met criteria for SMARCA4-UTs (undifferentiated phenotype and loss of SMARCA4 (BRG1) by immunohistochemistry).

Results: We identified 92 patients with SMARCA4-UTs; 58 (63%) had stage IV disease at diagnosis and 16 (17%) developed recurrent or metastatic disease after initial diagnosis.

Highly-multiplex detection of plasma cell-free human papillomavirus-16 DNA in oropharyngeal carcinoma.

Background: Plasma cell-free Human Papillomavirus DNA (cfHPVDNA) is a biomarker for oropharyngeal carcinoma. Existing diagnostics may be limited by inadequate sensitivity or high cost/complexity for longitudinal monitoring.

Objectives: We hypothesized that sensitive and specific plasma cfHPVDNA detection may be achieved via a highly-multiplex qPCR method.

Equipping residential aged care facilities for acute respiratory illness: The Western Sydney experience of improving outbreak management.

Objectives: Acute respiratory illnesses have a disproportionate impact on older people, and especially those living in residential aged care facilities where transmission risks are heightened. Additionally, staff in these facilities have been working under challenging conditions, often ill-equipped in terms of both training and resources to successfully manage the outbreaks of these illnesses. This paper examines the actions of an Australian public health unit to improve influenza outbreak management in residential aged care facilities and critiques the outcomes through a contemporary lens.