Prevalence of cancer survivors in the United States.

Background: With aging of the population and improvements in diagnosis, treatment, and supportive care, the number of cancer survivors in the United States has increased; updated prevalence estimates are needed.

Methods: Cancer prevalence on January 1, 2022, was estimated using the Prevalence Incidence Approach Model, utilizing incidence, survival, and mortality. Prevalence by age decade, sex, and time from diagnosis was calculated.

Advancing health equity in cancer survivorship research: National Institutes of Health 2017-2022 portfolio review.

Background: Communities and researchers have called for a paradigm shift from describing health disparities to a health equity research agenda that addresses structural drivers. Therefore, we examined whether the cancer survivorship research portfolio has made this shift.

Methods: We identified grants focused on populations experiencing health disparities from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cancer Survivorship Research Portfolio (N = 724), Fiscal Years 2017-2022.

Cardiovascular Disease in the Nation's Capital: How Policy and the Built Environment Contribute to Disparities in CVD Risk Factors in Washington, D.C.

On average, Washington D.C. residents experience low levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD) behavioral risk factors compared to the rest of the country.

Health Policy Responsiveness: Lessons Learned from Maryland and Prince George's County.

Effective, timely, and intentional policy efforts can significantly impact and improve the public's health and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities across the nation. Creating and implementing responsive policies at the state and county level is essential to supporting community efforts to improve health behaviors and health outcomes, particularly for communities of color who bear the brunt of disease risk and negative health outcomes. Using policy examples from the State of Maryland and Prince George's County, the largest and wealthiest predominately African-American county in the USA, this case study highlights the importance of state and county policy action when presented with opportunities to affect long-lasting, positive change.

The alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit exists in two isoforms that contribute to functional ligand-gated ion channels.

Fast synaptic transmission in mammalian autonomic ganglia is mediated primarily by nicotinic receptors, and one of the most abundant nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtypes in these neurons contains the alpha7 subunit (alpha7-nAChRs). Unlike alpha7-nAChRs expressed in other cells, the predominant alpha7-nAChR subtype found in rat intracardiac and superior cervical ganglion neurons exhibits a slow rate of desensitization and is reversibly blocked by alpha-bungarotoxin (alphaBgt). We report here the identification of an alpha7 subunit sequence variant in rat autonomic neurons that incorporates a novel 87-base pair cassette exon in the N terminus of the receptor and preserves the reading frame of the transcript.