Objectives: Radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy play key roles in the curative treatment of cancer, alone and in combination. Quantifying their roles is essential for equipment provision and workforce planning. The estimate that 40% of cancer patients are cured by RT has been used extensively to inform and influence policy but is relatively old and warrants review.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK) is aiming to be carbon net zero by 2040 to help limit the dangerous effects of climate change. Radiotherapy contributes to this with potential sources quantified here.
Method: Activity data for 42 patients from within the breast IMRT and prostate VMAT pathways were collected.
Objectives: High-energy Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) commenced in England in 2018 and NHS England commissions PBT for 1.5% of patients receiving radical radiotherapy. We sought expert opinion on the level of provision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStem Cell Rev Rep
February 2022
Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) are common and debilitating, cause significant health care costs for society, and rely predominately on autografts, which necessitate grafting a nerve section non-locally to repair the nerve injury. One possible approach to improving treatment is bolstering endogenous regenerative mechanisms or bioengineering new nervous tissue in the peripheral nervous system. In this review, we discuss critical-sized nerve gaps and nerve regeneration in rats, and summarize the roles of adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) in the treatment of PNIs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Inappropriate matching of motor and sensory fibers after nerve repair or nerve grafting can lead to failure of nerve recovery. Identification of motor and sensory fibers is important for the development of new approaches that facilitate neural regeneration and the next generation of nerve signal-controlled neuro-prosthetic limbs with sensory feedback technology. Only a few methods have been reported to differentiate sensory and motor nerve fascicles, and the reliability of these techniques is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCrit Rev Biochem Mol Biol
February 2020
Optogenetics has recently gained recognition as a biological technique to control the activity of cells using light stimulation. Many studies have applied optogenetics to cell lines in the central nervous system because it has the potential to elucidate neural circuits, treat neurological diseases and promote nerve regeneration. There have been fewer studies on the application of optogenetics in the peripheral nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: With high treatment costs and limited capacity, decisions on which adult patients to treat with proton beam therapy (PBT) must be based on the relative value compared to the current standard of care. Cost-utility analyses (CUAs) are the gold-standard method for doing this. We aimed to appraise the methodology and quality of CUAs in this area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReproductive and sexual health outcomes of adults with perinatal human immunodeficiency virus (PHIV) have not been well-characterized. This prospective cross-sectional study of 35 adult persons living with HIV (PLWH) from early life and 20 matched HIV-negative controls assessed quality of life, depressive symptoms, HIV transmission knowledge, and sexual/reproductive behaviors through self-report questionnaires. PLWH scored significantly worse than controls on depressive symptoms ( = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatic dysfunction are associated with low total and free testosterone (TT and FT) and high sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). However, little is known about changes in testosterone following successful HCV treatment.
Methods: We evaluated testosterone levels and the prevalence of low testosterone in a cohort of 327 men with chronic HCV infection (human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] coinfection = 150) and in a subset of 85 men with testosterone levels obtained pre-HCV treatment and after sustained virologic response (SVR).
Background: Both traditional and HIV-specific risk factors contribute to greater incidence of cardiovascular disease in persons living with HIV (PLWH). Using state-of-the-art, high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the common carotid arteries, this study aimed to evaluate the relationship between carotid vessel wall thickness (c-VWT) and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score in PLWH.
Methods: Cross-sectional determinations of c-VWT using MR imaging in virally suppressed PLWH without known cardiovascular disease (n=32) and matched controls (n=13) were completed.
In this study, we used evidence-based mathematical modelling to predict the patient cohort for MR-linac to assess its feasibility in a time of austerity. We discuss our results and the implications of evidence-based radiotherapy demand modelling tools such as Malthus on the implementation of new technology and value-based healthcare.
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