Treatment times for delivering adjuvant breast radiotherapy at a cancer centre in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Time is a valuable commodity that impacts hospital flow, patient experience and economic resources. This study aims to identify factors that affect daily treatment time over a course of radiation therapy (RT) in patients who underwent adjuvant breast RT.

Methods: In all adjuvant breast/chestwall RT patients treated from October 2017 to May 2018, daily set-up, beam delivery time, and overall treatment times were collected.

Breaking the silence around infertility: a scoping review of interventions addressing infertility-related gendered stigmatisation in low- and middle-income countries.

Infertility is a reproductive health concern that deserves attention, as reconfirmed by the 2018 report of the Guttmacher- Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). However, governments and SRHR organisations tend to neglect infertility. We conducted a scoping review of existing interventions aiming to decrease the stigmatisation of infertility in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Assessment of Radiation-Induced Malfunction in Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices.

Background: Radiation therapy (RT) is a standard cancer treatment modality, and an increasing number of patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are being referred for RT. The goals of this study were as follows: (i) to determine the incidence of CIED malfunction following RT; (ii) to characterize the various types of malfunctions that occur; and (iii) to identify risk factors associated with CIED malfunction following RT.

Methods: A retrospective study of patients with CIEDs who received RT between 2007 and 2018 at 4 Canadian centres (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Kingston General Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences Centre, and University of Ottawa Heart Institute) was conducted.

Evaluating a Modified High Purity Polysorbate 20 Designed to Reduce the Risk of Free Fatty Acid Particle Formation.

Purpose: To evaluate a modified high purity polysorbate 20 (RO HP PS20)-with lower levels of stearate, palmitate and myristate esters than the non-modified HP PS20-as a surfactant in biopharmaceutical drug products (DP). RO HP PS20 was designed to provide functional equivalence as a surfactant while delaying the onset of free fatty acid (FFA) particle formation upon hydrolytic degradation relative to HP PS20.

Methods: Analytical characterization of RO HP PS20 raw material included fatty acid ester (FAE) distribution, higher order ester (HOE) fraction, FFA levels and trace metals.

Toxicity testing of indocyanine green and fluorodeoxyglucose conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles with and without exposure to a magnetic field.

Iron nanoparticles (MNPs) are known to induce membrane damage and apoptosis of cancer cells. In our study we determined whether FDG coupled with iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles can exert the same destructive effect on cancer cells. This research study presents data involving NIC-H727 human lung, bronchus epithelial cells exposed to conjugated fluorodeoxyglucose conjugated with iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles and indocyanine green (ICG) dye (FDG-MNP-ICG), with and without the application of a magnetic field.

Effects of fluorodeoxyglucose magnetic nanoparticles on NCI-H727 and SH-SY5Y cancer cells.

We present a report regarding the cytotoxic effects of iron-based magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-mNPs) on the viability of NCI-H727 and SH-SY5Y cancer cells. MTT assays were performed to determine cell viability in treated cancer cells grown under standard 2D culture conditions. FDG-mNP concentrations of 0.

Blood mass spectrometry detects residual disease better than standard techniques in light-chain amyloidosis.

In patients with immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, depth of hematologic response correlates with both organ response and overall survival. Our group has demonstrated that screening with a matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is a quick, sensitive, and accurate means to diagnose and monitor the serum of patients with plasma cell disorders. Microflow liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization and quadrupole TOF MS adds further sensitivity.

It Only Takes a Minute: The Development and Implementation of a Patient Experience Survey in Radiation Therapy.

Introduction: Health care services use surveys to assess patient satisfaction and identify areas for improvement. While it is important to assess patient satisfaction to ensure their needs are met, lengthy questionnaires with closed-ended questions often focus on areas that may be considered important by institutions rather than patients. Recently, focus has shifted toward patient and caregiver experience, which institutions address via appreciative inquiry.

Men's Refashioning of Masculine Identities in Uganda and Their Self-Management of HIV Treatment.

Studies in sub-Saharan Africa show that masculine identities contribute to men's relatively lower uptake of HIV services. Although useful, these studies pay less attention to men's agency to negotiate and refashion masculine identities which better suit their lives as men living with HIV. In this article, I analyze the refashioning of masculine identities among men living with HIV in Uganda, adjustment processes which helped their self-management, and adherence to treatment.

To prep or not to prep - that is the question: A randomized trial on the use of antiflatulent medication as part of bowel preparation for patients having image guided external beam radiation therapy to the prostate.

Introduction: Radiation therapy is a standard treatment option for prostate cancer. With growing use of escalated doses and tighter margins, procedures to limit rectal size variation are needed to reduce prostate motion, increase treatment accuracy, and minimize rectal toxicity. This prospective study was done to determine whether the introduction of an antiflatulent medication would decrease rectal distention at computed tomography (CT) simulation and throughout a course of radiation therapy.

Developing and Evaluating Multimedia Patient Education Tools to Better Prepare Prostate-Cancer Patients for Radiotherapy Treatment (Randomized Study).

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of multimedia educational tools to improve CT planning preparation for intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer. Many patients are not prepared when given verbal preparation instructions to have a full bladder and empty rectum for their IMRT and require being rescanned, which results in additional costs for the patient and the hospital. A pamphlet and video outlining the proper preparation for prostate IMRT was created to decrease additional scans and the associated costs, while increasing patient satisfaction.

Finding Meaning: HIV Self-Management and Wellbeing among People Taking Antiretroviral Therapy in Uganda.

The health of people living with HIV (PLWH) and the sustained success of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes depends on PLWH's motivation and ability to self-manage the condition over the long term, including adherence to drugs on a daily basis. PLWH's self-management of HIV and their wellbeing are likely to be interrelated. Successful self-management sustains wellbeing, and wellbeing is likely to motivate continued self-management.

Antiretroviral therapy and changing patterns of HIV stigmatisation in Entebbe, Uganda.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has the potential to change processes of HIV stigmatisation. In this article, changing processes of stigmatisation among a group of people living with HIV (PLWH) on ART in Wakiso District, Uganda, are analysed using qualitative data from a study of PLWH's self-management of HIV on ART. There were 38 respondents (20 women, 18 men) who had been taking ART for at least 1 year.

The Framing and Fashioning of Therapeutic Citizenship Among People Living With HIV Taking Antiretroviral Therapy in Uganda.

In this article, we examine how people living with HIV (PLWH) were able to reconceptualize or "reframe" their understanding of HIV and enhance their capacity to self-manage the condition. Two in-depth interviews were held with 38 PLWH (20 women, 18 men) selected from three government and nongovernment antiretroviral therapy (ART) delivery sites in Wakiso District, and the narratives analyzed. ART providers played an important role in shaping participants' HIV self-management processes.

Higher quality of life and lower depression for people on ART in Uganda as compared to a community control group.

Provision of antiretroviral treatment (ART) to people living with HIV (PLWH) has increased globally. Research measuring whether ART restores subjective well-being to "normal" levels is lacking, particularly in resource limited settings. The study objectives are to compare quality of life and depression symptoms for PLWH on ART to a general community population and to explore factors to explain these differences, including socio-economic status and the impact of urban or rural residence.

Adjustment as process and outcome: Measuring adjustment to HIV in Uganda.

'Adjustment' in health refers to both processes and outcomes. Its measurement and conceptualisation in African cultures is limited. In total, 263 people living with HIV and receiving anti-retroviral therapy in clinics in Uganda completed a translated Mental Adjustment to HIV Scale, depression items from the Hopkins checklist and demographic questions.

Exploring the consequences of combining medical students with and without a background in biomedical sciences.

Context: Medical schools have tended to admit students with strong backgrounds in the biomedical sciences. Previous studies have shown that those with backgrounds in the social sciences can be as successful in medical school as those with science backgrounds. However, the experience of being a 'non-science' student over time has not been well described.

The long term economic impact of severe obstetric complications for women and their children in Burkina Faso.

This study investigates the long term economic impact of severe obstetric complications for women and their children in Burkina Faso, focusing on measures of food security, expenditures and related quality of life measures. It uses a hospital based cohort, first visited in 2004/2005 and followed up four years later. This cohort of 1014 women consisted of two main groups of comparison: 677 women who had an uncomplicated delivery and 337 women who experienced a severe obstetric complication which would have almost certainly caused death had they not received hospital care (labelled a "near miss" event).

Optimising measles virus-guided radiovirotherapy with external beam radiotherapy and specific checkpoint kinase 1 inhibition.

Background And Purpose: We previously reported a therapeutic strategy comprising replication-defective NIS-expressing adenovirus combined with radioiodide, external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and DNA repair inhibition. We have now evaluated NIS-expressing oncolytic measles virus (MV-NIS) combined with NIS-guided radioiodide, EBRT and specific checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) inhibition in head and neck and colorectal models.

Materials And Methods: Anti-proliferative/cytotoxic effects of individual agents and their combinations were measured by MTS, clonogenic and Western analysis.

Population genetics of the understory fishtail palm Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti in Belize: high genetic connectivity with local differentiation.

Background: Developing a greater understanding of population genetic structure in lowland tropical plant species is highly relevant to our knowledge of increasingly fragmented forests and to the conservation of threatened species. Specific studies are particularly needed for taxa whose population dynamics are further impacted by human harvesting practices. One such case is the fishtail or xaté palm (Chamaedorea ernesti-augusti) of Central America, whose wild-collected leaves are becoming progressively more important to the global ornamental industry.

The household costs of health care in rural South Africa with free public primary care and hospital exemptions for the poor.

Objective: To measure the direct cost burdens (health care expenditure as a percent of total household expenditure) for households in rural South Africa, and examine the expenditure and use patterns driving those burdens, in a setting with free public primary health care and hospital exemptions for the poor.

Methods: Data on illness events, treatment patterns and health expenditure in the previous month were assessed from a cross-sectional survey of 280 households conducted in the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance site, South Africa.

Results: On average, a household experiencing illness incurred a direct cost burden of 4.

The greatest happiness of the greatest number? Policy actors' perspectives on the limits of economic evaluation as a tool for informing health care coverage decisions in Thailand.

Background: This paper presents qualitative findings from an assessment of the acceptability of using economic evaluation among policy actors in Thailand. Using cost-utility data from two economic analyses a hypothetical case scenario was created in which policy actors had to choose between two competing interventions to include in a public health benefit package. The two competing interventions, laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) for gallbladder disease versus renal dialysis for chronic renal disease, were selected because they highlighted conflicting criteria influencing the allocation of healthcare resources.