Real-world analysis of the relationships between smoking, lung cancer stigma, and emotional functioning.

Introduction: People diagnosed with lung cancer experience high rates of distress, which can be compounded by the stigma of the disease. This study assessed a real-world population to understand patient-reported emotional functioning, types of stigma experienced, and relationship with smoking history.

Methods: Questionnaires using validated survey tools assessing demographics, smoking history, stigma, and quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30 Emotional Functioning Scale) were analyzed from 539 global participants in the Lung Cancer Registry between November 2019 and July 2022.

Health inequities across the lung cancer care continuum in ten marginalized populations: a narrative review.

Background And Objective: Lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in the United States. Although lung cancer screening and innovative treatment options are available, accessing these interventions remains a barrier for marginalized communities due to social and structural challenges that influence health care access, which has led to worse outcomes when compared to Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW) and non-marginalized populations. The objective of this study is to examine disparities in lung cancer and social/structural factors within ten critical populations (racial/ethnic minorities, low income, rural, LGBTQIA+, women, veteran and active duty, and small cell lung cancer) across the continuum of lung cancer care.

Getting ready for prime time: Recommended adaptations of an Empathic Communication Skills training intervention to reduce lung cancer stigma for a national multi-center trial.

Building upon prior work developing and pilot testing a provider-focused Empathic Communication Skills (ECS) training intervention, this study sought feedback from key invested partners who work with individuals with lung cancer (i.e. stakeholders including scientific and clinical advisors and patient advocates) on the ECS training intervention.

Influences on Lung Cancer Screening Initiation and Retention in Rural Alabama.

Introduction/objectives: Despite the introduction of lung cancer screening using low dose computed tomography (LDCT), overall screening rates in the U.S. remain low, with certain populations including Black and rural communities experiencing additional disparities.

Reducing stigma triggered by assessing smoking status among patients diagnosed with lung cancer: De-stigmatizing do and don't lessons learned from qualitative interviews.

Objective: To characterize lung cancer patients' reactions to cancer care providers' (CCPs) assessment of smoking behavior and to develop recommendations to reduce stigma and improve patient-clinician communication about smoking in the context of lung cancer care.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 56 lung cancer patients (Study 1) and focus groups with 11 lung cancer patients (Study 2) were conducted and analyzed using thematic content analysis.

Results: Three broad themes were identified: cursory questions about smoking history and current behavior; stigma triggered by assessment of smoking behavior; and recommended dos and don'ts for CCPs treating patients with lung cancer.

Identifying Barriers to Advocacy Among Patients With Lung Cancer: The Role of Stigma-Related Interpersonal Constraint.

Objectives: To examine whether aspects of disease-specific stigma are barriers to advocacy among individuals with lung cancer.

Sample & Setting: 266 patients with lung cancer treated at two National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States.

Methods & Variables: Patients completed a cross-sectional survey.

Oncology Care Provider Training in Empathic Communication Skills to Reduce Lung Cancer Stigma.

Background: Despite the clinical importance of assessing smoking history and advising patients who smoke to quit, patients with lung cancer often experience feelings of blame and stigma during clinical encounters with their oncology care providers (OCPs). Promoting empathic communication during these encounters may help reduce patients' experience of stigma and improve related clinical outcomes. This paper presents the evaluation of OCP- and patient-reported data on the usefulness of an OCP-targeted empathic communication skills (ECS) training to reduce the stigma of lung cancer and improve communication.

An examination of two dichotomies: Women with lung cancer and living with lung cancer as a chronic disease.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death globally, yet with many recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, the face of the disease is shifting. Historically, lung cancer is often thought of as a predominantly male disease with more than twice as many men as women being diagnosed worldwide-mostly due to the influence of smoking as the leading risk factor. However, lung cancer is also the second leading cause of cancer death in women and there is a growing population of young women who have never smoked and are being diagnosed.

A 10-Year Cross-Sectional Analysis of Public, Oncologist, and Patient Attitudes About Lung Cancer and Associated Stigma.

Introduction: Lung cancer stigma negatively impacts the clinical care and outcomes of those diagnosed, resulting in enduring disparities. The objective of this study was to determine whether attitudes toward lung cancer and the stigmatization of people diagnosed have changed over a decade.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was administered to the general public, oncologists, and people with lung cancer 10 years apart (2008 and 2018) using the same instrument and methodology.

Responding empathically to patients: a communication skills training module to reduce lung cancer stigma.

Most lung cancer patients report perceiving stigma surrounding their diagnosis, and routine clinical interactions with their health care providers (HCPs) are reported as a common source. The adverse effects of lung cancer stigma are associated with several adverse psychosocial and behavioral outcomes. One potential clinician-level intervention target is empathic communication because of its association with higher rates of patients' satisfaction, treatment adherence, and lower levels of psychological distress.

Survivor guilt: The secret burden of lung cancer survivorship.

: Historically, long-term survival following diagnosis of lung cancer has been a rare occurrence. An overall poor prognosis and the low likelihood of long-term survival are thought to precipitate survivors experiencing what is referred to as survivor guilt. This study explored the prevalence and nature of survivor guilt among lung cancer survivors.

A Low-Carbohydrate Ketogenic Diet Reduces Body Mass Without Compromising Performance in Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting Athletes.

Greene, DA, Varley, BJ, Hartwig, TB, Chapman, P, and Rigney, M. A low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet reduces body mass without compromising performance in powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting athletes. J Strength Cond Res 32(12): 3382-3391, 2018-Weight class athletes use weight-making strategies to compete in specific weight categories with an optimum power-to-weight ratio.

Cilia-mediated Hedgehog signaling controls form and function in the mammalian larynx.

Acoustic communication is fundamental to social interactions among animals, including humans. In fact, deficits in voice impair the quality of life for a large and diverse population of patients. Understanding the molecular genetic mechanisms of development and function in the vocal apparatus is thus an important challenge with relevance both to the basic biology of animal communication and to biomedicine.

Stigma, self-blame, and satisfaction with care among patients with lung cancer.

Objective: We sought to understand the experiences of patients with lung cancer and to see if attitudes varied by demographic factors.

Methods: We administered a 63-question survey by phone or online among 174 patients with lung cancer. Factor analysis was used to identify two groups of questions with a conceptual relationship and high Cronbach's alphas, stigma and satisfaction with care.

Enzyme-Regulated Supramolecular Assemblies of Cholesterol Conjugates against Drug-Resistant Ovarian Cancer Cells.

We report that phosphotyrosine-cholesterol conjugates effectively and selectively kill cancer cells, including platinum-resistant ovarian cancer cells. The conjugate increases the degree of noncovalent oligomerization upon enzymatic dephosphorylation in aqueous buffer. This enzymatic conversion also results in the assembly of the cholesterol conjugates inside and outside cells and leads to cell death.

The outer kinetochore protein KNL-1 contains a defined oligomerization domain in nematodes.

The kinetochore is a large, macromolecular assembly that is essential for connecting chromosomes to microtubules during mitosis. Despite the recent identification of multiple kinetochore components, the nature and organization of the higher-order kinetochore structure remain unknown. The outer kinetochore KNL-1/Mis12 complex/Ndc80 complex (KMN) network plays a key role in generating and sensing microtubule attachments.

A Qualitative Analysis of "Naturalistic" Conversations in a Peer-Led Online Support Community for Lung Cancer.

Background: Online support communities are popular in use by patients with cancer and their families for emotional, informational, and social support. Nonetheless, most research has focused on diagnoses other than lung cancer, indicating a need for studies to include more diverse participants and cancer conditions.

Objective: Our aim was to describe the content of messages in a United States-based online support community for lung cancer.

Public attitudes about lung cancer: stigma, support, and predictors of support.

Introduction: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, yet public engagement with efforts against lung cancer is low. Public engagement with a cancer is critical to efforts to combat it, yet the reasons for low support for efforts against lung cancer have not been systematically characterized.

Methods: We conducted a telephone survey of 1,071 people to determine levels of engagement and attitudes that might potentially drive engagement.

Proteomic profiling of cardiac tissue by isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell types (INTACT).

The proper dissection of the molecular mechanisms governing the specification and differentiation of specific cell types requires isolation of pure cell populations from heterogeneous tissues and whole organisms. Here, we describe a method for purification of nuclei from defined cell or tissue types in vertebrate embryos using INTACT (isolation of nuclei tagged in specific cell types). This method, previously developed in plants, flies and worms, utilizes in vivo tagging of the nuclear envelope with biotin and the subsequent affinity purification of the labeled nuclei.

Uncoupling of allosteric and oligomeric regulation in a functional hybrid enzyme constructed from Escherichia coli and human ribonucleotide reductase.

An N-terminal-domain (NTD) and adjacent catalytic body (CB) make up subunit-α of ribonucleotide reductase (RNR), the rate-limiting enzyme for de novo dNTP biosynthesis. A strong linkage exists between ligand binding at the NTD and oligomerization-coupled RNR inhibition, inducible by both dATP and nucleotide chemotherapeutics. These observations have distinguished the NTD as an oligomeric regulation domain dictating the assembly of inactive RNR oligomers.

Neuroendocrine mechanisms underlying sensory integration of social signals.

Individuals integrate information about their environment into adaptive behavioural responses, yet how different sensory modalities contribute to these decisions and where in the brain this integration occurs is not well understood. We presented male cichlid fish (Astatotilapia burtoni) with sensory information in three social contexts: intruder challenge, reproductive opportunity and a socially neutral situation. We then measured behavioural and hormonal responses along with induction of the immediate early gene c-Fos in candidate forebrain regions.

Structural complexity of a composite amyloid fibril.

The molecular structure of amyloid fibrils and the mechanism of their formation are of substantial medical and biological importance, but present an ongoing experimental and computational challenge. An early high-resolution view of amyloid-like structure was obtained on amyloid-like crystals of a small fragment of the yeast prion protein Sup35p: the peptide GNNQQNY. As GNNQQNY also forms amyloid-like fibrils under similar conditions, it has been theorized that the crystal's structural features are shared by the fibrils.

Conformational changes in the C terminus of Shaker K+ channel bound to the rat Kvbeta2-subunit.

We studied the structure of the C terminus of the Shaker potassium channel. The 3D structures of the full-length and a C-terminal deletion (Delta C) mutant of Shaker were determined by electron microscopy and single-particle analysis. The difference map between the full-length and the truncated channels clearly shows a compact density, located on the sides of the T1 domain, that corresponds to a large part of the C terminus.

Dynamics of lysosomal cholesterol in Niemann-Pick type C and normal human fibroblasts.

The dynamics of endolysosomal cholesterol were investigated in Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) cells and in human fibroblasts treated with class 2 amphiphiles to mimic NPC cells. We showed through new approaches that the massive pools of endolysosomal cholesterol in these cells are not trapped but, rather, circulate to the cell surface at about the normal rate. This flux spared NPC and amphiphile-treated cells from disruption by the extraction of their plasma membrane cholesterol with cyclodextrin.

Cholesterol movement in Niemann-Pick type C cells and in cells treated with amphiphiles.

Cholesterol accumulates to massive levels in cells from Niemann-Pick type C (NP-C) patients and in cells treated with class 2 amphiphiles that mimic NP-C disease. This behavior has been attributed to the failure of cholesterol released from ingested low density lipoproteins to exit the lysosomes. However, we now show that the rate of movement of cholesterol from lysosomes to plasma membranes in NP-C cells is at least as great as normal, as was also found previously for amphiphile-treated cells.