Cord blood T regulatory cells synergize with ruxolitinib to improve GVHD outcomes.

Background: Adoptive therapy with umbilical cord blood (UCB) T-regulatory (Treg) cells can prevent graft vs. host disease (GVHD). We hypothesize that UCB Tregs can treat GVHD and synergize with ruxolitinib, Jak2 inhibitor, to improve outcomes.

Leveraging Nursing Assessment for Early Identification of Post Operative Gastrointestinal Dysfunction (POGD) in Patients Undergoing Colorectal Surgery.

Postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction (POGD) remains a common morbidity after gastrointestinal surgery. POGD is associated with delayed hospital recovery, increased length of stay, poor patient satisfaction and experience, and increased economic hardship. The I-FEED scoring system was created by a group of experts to address the lack of a consistent objective definition of POGD.

Neurocognitive outcomes and functional independence in adult survivors of childhood medulloblastoma diagnosed over 3 decades.

Background: Treatment of childhood medulloblastoma has evolved to reduce neurotoxicity while improving survival. However, the impact of evolving therapies on late neurocognitive outcomes and adult functional independence remains unknown.

Methods: Adult survivors of childhood medulloblastoma (n = 505; median [minimum-maximum] age, 29 [18-46] years) and sibling controls (n = 727; 32 [18-58] years) from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study completed surveys assessing neurocognitive problems and chronic health conditions (CHCs).

Application of Machine Learning in Predicting Perioperative Outcomes in Patients with Cancer: A Narrative Review for Clinicians.

This narrative review explores the utilization of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) models to enhance perioperative cancer care. ML and AI models offer significant potential to improve perioperative cancer care by predicting outcomes and supporting clinical decision-making. Tailored for perioperative professionals including anesthesiologists, surgeons, critical care physicians, nurse anesthetists, and perioperative nurses, this review provides a comprehensive framework for the integration of ML and AI models to enhance patient care delivery throughout the perioperative continuum.

Multi-task Learning with High-Dimensional Noisy Images.

Recent medical imaging studies have given rise to distinct but inter-related datasets corresponding to multiple experimental tasks or longitudinal visits. Standard scalar-on-image regression models that fit each dataset separately are not equipped to leverage information across inter-related images, and existing multi-task learning approaches are compromised by the inability to account for the noise that is often observed in images. We propose a novel joint scalar-on-image regression framework involving wavelet-based image representations with grouped penalties that are designed to pool information across inter-related images for joint learning, and which explicitly accounts for noise in high-dimensional images via a projection-based approach.

Detection of Adenocarcinoma of the Colon on 18 F-Fluciclovine PET/CT.

An 85-year-old man with prostate cancer and de novo bone metastases was treated with hormonal therapy with resolution of bone lesions, improved primary disease, and improved serum tumor markers. Although on hormonal therapy, biochemical recurrence prompted performance of 18 F-fluciclovine PET/CT. Fluciclovine PET/CT revealed primary prostate cancer progression with incidental note of avid foci in the colon for which colonoscopy was recommended.

Impact of risk-based therapy on late morbidity and mortality in neuroblastoma survivors: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Background: Early efforts at risk-adapted therapy for neuroblastoma are predicted to result in differential late effects; the magnitude of these differences has not been well described.

Methods: Late mortality, subsequent malignant neoplasms (SMNs), and severe/life-threatening chronic health conditions (CHCs), graded according to CTCAE v4.03, were assessed among 5-year Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) survivors of neuroblastoma diagnosed 1987-1999.

Prediabetes and Associated Risk of Cardiovascular Events and Chronic Kidney Disease Among Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer in the St Jude Lifetime Cohort.

Purpose: Little is known about the prevalence of prediabetes and associated risk of cardiovascular events and chronic kidney disease (CKD) with this reversable condition in survivors.

Methods: Prevalence of prediabetes (fasting plasma glucose 100-125 mg/dL or hemoglobin A1c 5.7%-6.

Process for maintaining appropriate air quality in a hospital setting during and following a nearby building implosion.

Air quality in a cancer facility is integral to the success of patient treatment. The organization must be committed to providing a patient care environment free of physical and biological hazards that result from construction and demolition activities. This project intended to safely demolish a derelict building in Texas while minimizing air quality risks and impacts to nearby hospitals and a proximal cancer hospital.

Evolving therapies, neurocognitive outcomes, and functional independence in adult survivors of childhood glioma.

Background: Treatment of childhood glioma has evolved to reduce radiotherapy exposure with the goal of limiting late toxicity. However, the associations between treatment changes and neurocognition, and the contribution of neurocognition and chronic health conditions to attainment of adult independence, remain unknown.

Methods: Adult survivors of childhood glioma diagnosed in 1970-1999 in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (n = 1284; median [minimum-maximum] 30 [18-51] years of age at assessment; 22 [15-34] years from diagnosis) self-reported neurocognitive impairment and chronic health conditions.

Accounting for temporal variability in functional magnetic resonance imaging improves prediction of intelligence.

Neuroimaging-based prediction methods for intelligence have seen a rapid development. Among different neuroimaging modalities, prediction using functional connectivity (FC) has shown great promise. Most literature has focused on prediction using static FC, with limited investigations on the merits of such analysis compared to prediction using dynamic FC or region-level functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) times series that encode temporal variability.

A Subset of Thoracic SMARCA4-Deficient Undifferentiated Tumors Express GATA3.

Thoracic SMARCA4-deficient undifferentiated tumor (SMARCA4-UT) is a rare and highly aggressive malignant neoplasm characterized by high-grade undifferentiated morphologic features and recurrent inactivating mutations of . These tumors consistently exhibit loss of SMARCA4 (BRG1) while displaying variable expression of other nonspecific markers. Recently, we encountered a SMARCA4-UT demonstrating immunoreactivity for GATA3, and we sought to characterize this phenomenon in a larger series.

Patient-reported Adverse Events During Neoadjuvant Therapy in a Phase 2 Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial (Alliance A021501).

Objective: We sought to evaluate symptomatic adverse event (AE) rates among patients with pancreatic cancer receiving neoadjuvant therapy on clinical trial (A021501) using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE).

Background: To date, pancreatic cancer clinical trials have measured AEs using standard physician reporting [Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE)]. Patient-reported symptomatic AEs have been incompletely characterized.

Specific causes of excess late mortality and association with modifiable risk factors among survivors of childhood cancer: a report from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study cohort.

Background: 5-year survival after childhood cancer does not fully describe life-years lost due to childhood cancer because there are a large number of deaths occurring beyond 5-years (late mortality) related to cancer and cancer treatment. Specific causes of health-related (non-recurrence, non-external) late mortality and risk reduction through modifiable lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors are not well described. Through using a well-characterised cohort of 5-year survivors of the most common childhood cancers, we evaluated specific health-related causes of late mortality and excess deaths compared with the general US population and identified targets to reduce future risk.

Autoantibodies to PAX5, PTCH1, and GNA11 as Serological Biomarkers in the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Hispanic Americans.

Studies have demonstrated that autoantibodies to tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) may be used as efficient biomarkers with low-cost and highly sensitive characteristics. In this study, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted to analyze autoantibodies to paired box protein Pax-5 (PAX5), protein patched homolog 1 (PTCH1), and guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit alpha-11 (GNA11) in sera from Hispanic Americans including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), patients with chronic hepatitis (CH), as well as normal controls. Meanwhile, 33 serial sera from eight HCC patients before and after diagnosis were used to explore the potential of these three autoantibodies as early biomarkers.

Covariate-specific evaluation of continuous biomarker.

Diagnostic tests usually need to operate at a high sensitivity or specificity level in practice. Accordingly, specificity at the controlled sensitivity, or vice versa, is a clinically sensible performance metric for evaluating continuous biomarkers. Meanwhile, the performance of a biomarker may vary across sub-populations as defined by covariates, and covariate-specific evaluation can be informative.

Fundamentals of Conducting Cooperative Group Trials Through the National Clinical Trials Network.

This review discusses the benefits of performing multidisciplinary trials through the cooperative group mechanism, outlines the process from trial concept to activation, and discusses opportunities for surgeons to become involved in cancer cooperative trials.

The use of an educational time-out in thyroid and parathyroid surgery to move the needle in periprocedural education.

Background: As surgical training shifts toward a competency-based paradigm, deliberate practice for procedures must be a point of focus. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an educational time-out intervention on educational experience and operative performance in endocrine surgery.

Methods: For 12 months, third-year general surgery residents used the educational time-out to establish an operative step of focus for thyroidectomy and parathyroidectomy procedures.

Clinical Manifestations and Surgical Management of Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma: Beyond the NCCN Guidelines.

Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL) is an uncommon peripheral T cell lymphoma arising in response to textured-surface breast implants. Frequently, BIA-ALCL is indolent and typically presents with peri-implant swelling after breast reconstruction or cosmetic augmentation. However, patients can present with an invasive breast or chest wall mass, palpable lymphadenopathy, or metastatic disease.

MR-Guided Adaptive Radiotherapy for OAR Sparing in Head and Neck Cancers.

MR-linac devices offer the potential for advancements in radiotherapy (RT) treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC) by using daily MR imaging performed at the time and setup of treatment delivery. This article aims to present a review of current adaptive RT (ART) methods on MR-Linac devices directed towards the sparing of organs at risk (OAR) and a view of future adaptive techniques seeking to improve the therapeutic ratio. This ratio expresses the relationship between the probability of tumor control and the probability of normal tissue damage and is thus an important conceptual metric of success in the sparing of OARs.

The Plastic Surgery In-service Training Examination: An In-depth Reference Analysis.

Unlabelled: The goal of this study was to characterize the references provided as supporting evidence of the Plastic Surgery In-service Training Examination (PSITE) syllabi, including those on the novel "core surgical principles" section.

Methods: We analyzed the references from five consecutive PSITE Examination syllabi (2016-2020). We collected the following information from each question: question section, total number of references, and source of publication of each reference.