Publications by authors named "Richard Ballena"

Background: Patient preferences (quantity vs quality of life; present vs future health) have not been investigated in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The goal of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate patient values toward treatment goals and competing health outcomes among adults with NETs.

Patients And Methods: Patients with well-differentiated, grade 1 or 2, advanced NETs starting a new systemic therapy completed 4 tools: (1) Health Outcomes Tool, which ranks the importance of 4 outcomes (survival, function/independence, freedom from pain, freedom from symptoms); (2) Attitude Scale, which identifies the extent to which patients agree with statements related to health outcomes; (3) Now versus Later Tool, which ranks the relative importance of quality of life (QoL) now versus 1 and 5 years from now; and (4) Prognosis and Treatment Perceptions Questionnaire, which identifies the amount of information the patient prefers to receive about their disease and treatment, the patient's treatment goal, the patient's perception of the physician's treatment goal, and self-reported health status.

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Objectives: There is a lack of effective patient education regarding diagnosis/treatment of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), possibly related to their rare incidence.

Methods: In this cross-sectional survey study, NET patients attending the 2019 Annual Los Angeles NET Education Conference were approached to complete NET VITALS, a self-assessment tool gauging patients' perception/awareness of their NET diagnosis/treatment, and a satisfaction survey. Feasibility of NET VITALS, patient satisfaction with NET VITALS, and patients' perception/awareness of their NET diagnosis/treatment were evaluated.

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Article Synopsis
  • Older adults (≥65 years) with gastrointestinal cancers undergoing chemotherapy are at high risk for hospitalization due to treatment-related side effects.
  • A study analyzed 199 older patients with GI cancers and found that factors like female sex, cardiac issues, and cancer type increased hospitalization risk.
  • Specifically, cardiac comorbidity was identified as a significant predictor for hospitalizations, highlighting the need for further research on geriatric assessments in this group.
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Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are rare neoplasms that arise in the neuroendocrine cells of the pancreas. Although their clinical presentations differ depending on cell type, most are indolent, whereas others cause noteworthy hormone-related symptoms. The increasing incidence of PanNETs, attributed to improved diagnostic modalities, demonstrates advances in current standard of care.

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To investigate the predictive utility of stimulation threshold (ST) of intraoperative electromyography monitoring for facial nerve (FN) outcomes among vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients postoperatively. The authors enrolled 103 unilateral VS patients who underwent surgical resection into a prospective cohort observational study from January 2013 to April 2015 in our hospital. ST values were used to categorize 81 patients into the "low current" (ST ≤ 0.

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