Publications by authors named "Preston M"

Introduction: The Australian National Cervical Screening Program has mandated management algorithms that are uniform across all age groups, but evidence is emerging that perhaps the risk of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) may decrease in the postmenopausal period.

Objective: The aim of the study is to identify whether patients ≥50 years of age referred to a tertiary colposcopy service have a different risk of HSIL or greater (+).

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of 3239 referrals to a hospital colposcopy clinic with a positive human papillomavirus (HPV) cervical screening test between December 2017 and May 2023.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objective: Non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) patients treated with additional bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) may become unresponsive to BCG. Recently, sequential intravesical gemcitabine and docetaxel (gem/doce) are being used for NMIBC. This study aims to compare oncologic outcomes between sequential intravesical gem/doce versus additional BCG in patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Mortality rate of female gynecologic cancer is higher among individuals without affordable health insurance.

Objectives: We determined the impact of Medicaid expansion on the number of female gynecologic-related cancer inpatient admissions in Virginia (VA) relative to North Carolina (NC), the latter of which did not expand Medicaid.

Design: This quasi-experimental study was restricted to women between 18 and 64 years old admitted to general, acute, and short-term hospitals with gynecologic cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: This is a review of patients managed by our single-site breast surgery service for complications of cosmetic surgeries performed abroad and within the UK, across September 2022-2023.

Methods: A retrospective review of outpatient clinic and emergency theatre lists was used to identify patients; data was collected from their electronic records.

Results: 25 patients (23 female) were identified, 20 had surgery abroad.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background/objectives: Effective communication between patients and healthcare providers is essential for informed decision making in cancer care. Communication aids that can help prostate cancer patients optimize their involvement in treatment care planning are not widely used in the U.S.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * The study developed a tailored mobile health intervention based on formative research, input from a community advisory board of Black men, and survey data to enhance CRC screening rates.
  • * Key findings included the necessity for private and accessible delivery methods, including the involvement of local health clinics due to significant mistrust of healthcare systems and information gaps among the target population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In gaining word knowledge, children's semantic representations are initially imprecise before becoming gradually refined. We developed and tested a framework for a digital receptive vocabulary assessment that captured varied levels of representation as children learn words. At pre-test and post-test, children selected one of four images to match a word's meaning: a correct target, a conceptually-related foil, a thematically-related foil, and a phonologically-similar foil.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study aimed to compare the cancer risks of bladder-sparing therapy (BST) versus radical cystectomy (RC) in patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).
  • - Data from 578 patients showed no significant differences in survival outcomes between the two treatment options, but the BST group had higher rates of high-grade recurrences and progressions to muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) over time.
  • - The findings suggest that while BST and upfront RC provide similar survival rates in the intermediate term, patients receiving BST face increasing recurrence and progression risks, particularly with additional treatment attempts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been demonstrated to modulate cell proliferation, desmoplasia, angiogenesis and immunosuppression. We examined the association of RAS inhibitors (RASi)-namely angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB)-with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) preceding radical cystectomy (RC).

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively investigated concurrent RASi use with NAC prior to RC in 302 patients with MIBC from 3 academic institutions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (iADT) alleviates some side effects of continuous (c) ADT in patients with prostate cancer (PC), but its relative impact on ADT-associated comorbidities is uncertain. We assessed real-world use of iADT and cADT and associated risk of cardiovascular and endocrine/metabolic events in patients with nonmetastatic (nm) PC.

Methods: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included patients with nmPC initiating systemic ADT with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (goserelin, histrelin, leuprolide, and triptorelin) or antagonists (degarelix) in the US Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare database (2010-2017), who had ≥ 36 months of continuous insurance coverage, unless death occurred, and did not receive chemotherapy or next-generation hormonal therapies during follow-up (through 2019).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Spontaneous preterm birth complicates ∼7% of pregnancies and causes morbidity and mortality. Although infection is a common etiology, our understanding of the fetal immune system in vivo is limited. This study aimed to utilize T2-weighted imaging and T2* relaxometry (which is a proxy of tissue oxygenation) of the fetal spleen in uncomplicated pregnancies and in fetuses that were subsequently delivered spontaneously prior to 32 weeks.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * Recent updates to the NCCN Guidelines for Bladder Cancer reflect changes from the fifth edition of the WHO Classification of Tumours, ensuring alignment with new standards.
  • * The guidelines also introduce new treatment options for NMIBC that doesn't respond to bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy and provide updated recommendations for systemic therapy targeting advanced or metastatic bladder cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Current theories of decision-making propose that decisions arise through competition between choice options. Computational models of the decision process estimate how quickly information about choice options is integrated and how much information is needed to trigger a choice. Experiments using this approach typically report data from well-trained participants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Sentinel lymph node (SLN) dissection has been established as standard of care in many tumours. Its use in early cervical cancer is an area of increasing interest and some studies suggest a high detection rate.

Aim: To explore feasibility of SLN dissection and establish the patient detection rate in women with early cervical cancer.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Macroalgae are multicellular, aquatic autotrophs that play vital roles in global climate maintenance and have diverse applications in biotechnology and eco-engineering, which are directly linked to their multicellularity phenotypes. However, their genomic diversity and the evolutionary mechanisms underlying multicellularity in these organisms remain uncharacterized. In this study, we sequenced 110 macroalgal genomes from diverse climates and phyla, and identified key genomic features that distinguish them from their microalgal relatives.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives:  We conducted a focus group to assess the attitudes of primary care physicians (PCPs) toward prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-screening algorithms, perceptions of using decision support tools, and features that would make such tools feasible to implement.

Methods:  A multidisciplinary team (primary care, urology, behavioral sciences, bioinformatics) developed the decision support tool that was presented to a focus group of 10 PCPs who also filled out a survey. Notes and audio-recorded transcripts were analyzed using Thematic Content Analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives:  Our objective was to pilot test an electronic health record-embedded decision support tool to facilitate prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening discussions in the primary care setting.

Methods:  We pilot-tested a novel decision support tool that was used by 10 primary care physicians (PCPs) for 6 months, followed by a survey. The tool comprised (1) a risk-stratified algorithm, (2) a tool for facilitating shared decision-making (Simple Schema), (3) three best practice advisories (BPAs: <45, 45-75, and >75 years), and (4) a health maintenance module for scheduling automated reminders about PSA rescreening.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Family history and germline genetic risk single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been separately shown to stratify lifetime risk of prostate cancer. Here, we evaluate the combined prognostic value of family history of prostate and other related cancers and germline risk SNPs among patients with favorable-risk prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: A total of 1367 participants from the prospective Health Professionals Follow-up Study diagnosed with low- or favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer from 1986 to 2017 underwent genome-wide SNP genotyping.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Colorectal cancer screening rates remain suboptimal, particularly among low-income populations. Our objective was to evaluate the long-term effects of Medicaid expansion on colorectal cancer screening.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 354,384 individuals aged 50-64 with an income below 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL), who participated in the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System from 2010 to 2018.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Information seeking anxiety is a multidimensional construct that is operationalized as having elements of worry, confusion, and disorganization. Much remains unknown about the ways information seeking anxiety operates among cancer patients in the United States. This study investigated the application of the information seeking anxiety concept among prostate cancer patients by documenting their assessment experiences and examining relationships between information seeking anxiety and treatment information search behaviors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is a compelling need to find drugs active against (). 4'-Phosphopantetheinyl transferase (PptT) is an essential enzyme in that has attracted interest as a potential drug target. We optimized a PptT assay, used it to screen 422,740 compounds, and identified raltitrexed, an antineoplastic antimetabolite, as the most potent PptT inhibitor yet reported.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Current theories of decision making propose that decisions arise through competition between choice options. Computational models of the decision process estimate how quickly information about choice options is integrated and how much information is needed to trigger a choice. Experiments using this approach typically report data from well-trained participants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF