Publications by authors named "Sophia C Kamran"

Article Synopsis
  • Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans and the second for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, prompting a study of cancer mortality trends from 1999 to 2020 in these groups.
  • Researchers analyzed data from the CDC to assess age-adjusted cancer death rates by demographics, finding a 1.5% annual decrease in overall cancer mortality, with men showing a greater decrease than women.
  • However, certain cancers like uterine and brain cancers saw increases in death rates among women, and liver cancer rates rose for both genders across all US regions.
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Purpose: Men with localized prostate cancer may receive either photon-based intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or proton beam therapy (PBT). The PARTIQoL trial (NCT01617161) demonstrates the feasibility of performing a large, multicenter phase 3 randomized trial comparing IMRT with PBT for localized prostate cancer. Here, we report baseline features of patients enrolled on this trial and present strategies to improve feasibility of other similar trials.

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Introduction: Penile cancer is rare in the United States (US); however, disparities have been found in the incidence, treatment, and outcomes of penile cancer. There is a need for evaluation of recent trends in penile cancer mortality, incidence, and place of death across all demographics.

Materials And Methods: Using the CDC WONDER database, penile cancer-specific mortality (PNCSM) trends in the US were evaluated from 1999 to 2020 by race/ethnicity, age group, census region, and place of death.

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Article Synopsis
  • The 2023 Coffey-Holden Prostate Cancer Academy Meeting, held at UCLA from June 22 to 25, focused on innovative strategies to improve prostate cancer research and treatment, marking its 10th annual gathering.
  • The event featured 81 academic researchers and included 40 presentations across various sessions, discussing critical topics such as transcription factors, androgen deprivation therapy, and advances in immunotherapy.
  • The meeting aimed to share knowledge to drive progress in prostate cancer research and clinical care on a global scale.
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Chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is a treatment for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Using a novel transcriptomic profiling panel, we validated prognostic immune biomarkers to CRT using 70 pretreatment tumor samples from prospective trials of MIBC (NRG/RTOG 0524 and 0712). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated via the Kaplan-Meier method and stratified by genes correlated with immune cell activation.

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Purpose: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals have an increased risk of poor health outcomes, in part due to knowledge and training gaps in health care education. This study sought to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practice behaviors of various health care role groups within radiation oncology toward SGM patients.

Methods And Materials: A 38-item web-based survey was emailed to 1045 staff across 2 large radiation oncology departments.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study aims to address gender equity in radiation oncology by investigating the prevalence of all-male panels, or "manels," at major conferences like ASTRO and CARO, noting the underrepresentation of women in these settings.
  • Over four years, the study analyzed 765 panel sessions featuring nearly 3,000 faculty members, revealing that 16.6% of these sessions were manels and highlighting a decrease in manels over time.
  • The research found a consistent male majority in panel chair roles, with a notable disparity in female representation based on session topics, suggesting areas for improvement in gender balance within the field.
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Cancer is the leading cause of illness-related death in state prisons in the United States. The experiences of physicians providing oncological care to individuals experiencing incarceration are underexplored. The study aims were to evaluate knowledge, attitudes, and practices of oncologists caring for cancer patients who are incarcerated.

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Purpose: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part I of a three-part series focusing on treatment decision-making at the time of suspected biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP). Please refer to Part II for discussion of treatment delivery for non-metastatic BCR after RP and Part III for discussion of evaluation and management of recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, regional recurrence, and oligometastasis.

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Purpose: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part III of a three-part series focusing on evaluation and management of suspected non-metastatic recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, evaluation and management of regional recurrence, management for molecular imaging metastatic recurrence, and future directions. Please refer to Part I for discussion of treatment decision-making and Part II for discussion of treatment delivery for non-metastatic biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP).

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Purpose: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part II of a three-part series focusing on treatment delivery for non-metastatic biochemical recurrence (BCR) after primary radical prostatectomy (RP). Please refer to Part I for discussion of treatment decision-making and Part III for discussion of evaluation and management of recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, regional recurrence, and oligometastasis.

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Radiation therapy (RT) is an effective treatment for stage IIA and select stage IIB seminomas. However, given the long life expectancy of seminoma patients, there are concerns about the risk of secondary cancers from RT. This study assessed differences in secondary cancer risk for stage II seminoma patients following proton pencil-beam scanning (PBS) and photon VMAT, compared to 3D conformal photon RT.

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Introduction: We investigated the incidence of secondary bladder (BCa) and rectal cancers (RCa) after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for prostate cancer (PCa) compared to radical prostatectomy (RP) alone, and compared cancer-specific survival (CSS) of these secondary neoplasms to their primary counterparts.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included men in the SEER cancer registry with a diagnosis of non-metastatic, clinically node-negative PCa treated with either RP or EBRT from 1995-2011 and allowed a minimum five-year lag period for the development of secondary BCa or RCa. Patients were divided into two eras, 1995-2002 and 2003-2011, to examine differences in incidence of secondary malignancies over time.

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Purpose: Our purpose was to develop a summary of recommendations regarding the management of patients with clinically localized prostate cancer based on the American Urologic Association/ ASTRO Guideline on Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer.

Methods: The American Urologic Association and ASTRO convened a multidisciplinary, expert panel to develop recommendations based on a systematic literature review using an a priori defined consensus-building methodology. The topics covered were risk assessment, staging, risk-based management, principles of management including active surveillance, surgery, radiation, and follow-up after treatment.

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Background: Bladder cancer is the tenth leading cause of cancer death in the United States (US). Advances in diagnosis, imaging, and treatments have led to improvements in bladder cancer management.

Objective: To evaluate longitudinal bladder cancer mortality trends from 1999-2020 in the US by gender, race, ethnicity, age, geographic region, and urbanization category.

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Article Synopsis
  • High-risk localized prostate cancer is complex to treat, with varied responses to different treatment methods, and is increasingly common due to changes in prostate cancer screening recommendations.
  • Current guidelines emphasize informed decision-making for screening, and efforts are being made to enhance targeted screening for high-risk groups.
  • A multimodal treatment approach is necessary, involving radiation and personalized care, while balancing the effectiveness of treatment against possible side effects and impacts on long-term quality of life.
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Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) plays a central role in the cellular response to DNA damage and ATM alterations are common in several tumor types including bladder cancer. However, the specific impact of ATM alterations on therapy response in bladder cancer is uncertain. Here, we combine preclinical modeling and clinical analyses to comprehensively define the impact of ATM alterations on bladder cancer.

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Purpose: Novel techniques and advances in radiation therapy (RT) have been explored to treat testicular seminoma, a highly radiosensitive and curable histology. We evaluated the historical and current indications for radiation therapy (RT) in testicular seminoma.

Methods: A narrative literature review was performed.

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Background: In a recent phase III randomized control trial, delivering a focal radiotherapy (RT) boost to tumors visible on MRI was shown to improve disease-free survival and regional/distant metastasis-free survival for patients with prostate cancer-without increasing toxicity. The aim of this study was to assess how widely this technique is being applied in current practice, as well as physicians' perceived barriers toward its implementation.

Methods: We invited radiation oncologists to complete an online questionnaire assessing their use of intraprostatic focal boost in December 2022 and February 2023.

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The First-Generation and/or Low-Income (FGLI) identity is not readily visible, encapsulating those who are the first in their families to complete a 4-year college degree and/or those living near or below the poverty line. In the backdrop of unprecedented levels of socioeconomic inequality in a country where household income predicts educational attainment, we explore the current state of U.S.

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Purpose: There is an urgent need for biomarkers of radiation response in organ-sparing therapies. Bladder preservation with trimodality therapy (TMT), consisting of transurethral tumor resection followed by chemoradiation, is an alternative to radical cystectomy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), but molecular determinants of response are poorly understood.

Experimental Design: We characterized genomic and transcriptomic features correlated with long-term response in a single institution cohort of patients with MIBC homogeneously treated with TMT.

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Purpose: Chemotherapy (CHT) or radiation therapy (RT) are first-line treatments for clinical stage II (CS-II) testicular seminoma. Historically, clinical stage I (CS-I) seminoma was also treated with CHT or RT, but in the past 2 decades practice has shifted toward active surveillance for CS-I with RT or CHT reserved for patients with progression to CS-II. Limited data exist on contemporary RT techniques and patient stratification (ie, de novo [CS-II at orchiectomy] vs relapsed [CS-II diagnosed during surveillance after orchiectomy for CS-I]).

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Background: Testicular cancer (TC) mortality rates have decreased over time, however it is unclear whether these improvements are consistent across all communities.

Aims: The aim of this study was to analyze trends in TC incidence, mortality, and place of death (PoD) in the United States between 1999-2020 and identify disparities across race, ethnicity, and geographic location.

Methods And Results: This cross-sectional study used CDC WONDER and NAACCR, to calculate age-adjusted rates of TC incidence and mortality, respectively.

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