Aspirin vs Placebo as Adjuvant Therapy for Breast Cancer: The Alliance A011502 Randomized Trial.

Importance: Observational studies of survivors of breast cancer and prospective trials of aspirin for cardiovascular disease suggest improved breast cancer survival among aspirin users, but prospective studies of aspirin to prevent breast cancer recurrence are lacking.

Objective: To determine whether aspirin decreases the risk of invasive cancer events among survivors of breast cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A011502, a phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial conducted in the United States and Canada with 3020 participants who had high-risk nonmetastatic breast cancer, enrolled participants from 534 sites from January 6, 2017, through December 4, 2020, with follow-up to March 4, 2023.

Evaluation of real-world versus clinical trial outcomes of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are the mainstay of treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Patients enrolled in clinical trials investigating the safety and efficacy of TKIs in CML are generally younger, have fewer comorbidities, and are monitored differently than patients treated in the real world. This narrative literature review summarizes efficacy outcomes (complete cytogenetic response, major molecular response, and disease progression) and safety outcomes (duration of TKI therapy, TKI discontinuation rates, dosage changes, and frequently reported adverse events) from landmark clinical trials as well as real-world studies.

Direct Oral Anticoagulants vs Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin and Recurrent VTE in Patients With Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: In patients with cancer who have venous thromboembolism (VTE) events, long-term anticoagulation with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) is recommended to prevent recurrent VTE. The effectiveness of a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) compared with LMWH for preventing recurrent VTE in patients with cancer is uncertain.

Objective: To evaluate DOACs, compared with LMWH, for preventing recurrent VTE and for rates of bleeding in patients with cancer following an initial VTE event.

A Path Toward Health Care Equity: System-Based Interventions for Change.

Despite documentation spanning decades, health care disparities across North Carolina have remained persistent for populations of color, especially for Black patients. This commentary reviews recent studies that used system-based interventions to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for everyone, and outlines how clinicians, partnering with NC AHEC, can apply results to practice.

EatWellNow: Formative Development of a Place-Based Behavioral "Nudge" Technology Intervention to Promote Healthier Food Purchases among Army Soldiers.

Approximately 17% of military service members are obese. Research involving army soldiers suggests a lack of awareness of healthy foods on post. Innovative approaches are needed to change interactions with the military food environment.

Impact of adherence to ibrutinib on clinical outcomes in real-world patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Ibrutinib is an oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL). Clinical trial data suggest that strict adherence is directly related to clinical outcomes. This retrospective, multicenter study aimed to evaluate ibrutinib adherence and its impact on clinical outcomes in patients with CLL/SLL treated in the real-world setting.

An academic-practice partnership during COVID-19 pandemic: Transitioning from a clinical to virtual fellowship.

Aims: Discuss the needed modifications that occurred to the academic-practice oncology partnership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: To meet the workforce needs of nurses who care for adults with cancer, an academic-practice partnership was created in 2016. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, North Carolina Cancer Hospital and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center collaborated to provide structured clinical and didactic practice experiences for undergraduate nursing students interested in oncology nursing.

Using the SEER-Medicare Data to Assess Incident Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and Bladder Cancer Cases Missed by Cancer Registries.

The growing use of oral systemic therapies and transition of some cancer treatments to the outpatient setting makes capturing all cancer case patients more difficult. We aim to develop algorithms to identify potentially missed incident case patients and estimate impact on incidence rates. We reviewed claims from SEER-Medicare 5% noncancer control patient sample to identify potentially missed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and bladder case patients based on diagnosis codes, cancer-related treatments, and oncology consultations.

Long-Term Follow-up of CALGB (Alliance) 100001: Autologous Followed by Nonmyeloablative Allogeneic Transplant for Multiple Myeloma.

CALGB (Alliance) 100001 was a phase II study evaluating autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) followed by nonmyeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplant (alloSCT) in patients with multiple myeloma who had received no more than 18 months of prior therapy and had experienced no more than 1 prior progression event. Conditioning for ASCT was with high-dose melphalan (200 mg/m). The alloSCT reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen consisted of fludarabine (30 mg/m/d i.

Multidisciplinary Management of Oligometastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) encompass a group of rare but heterogeneous diseases. Nevertheless, many patients, particularly those with oligometastatic disease can benefit from thoughtful multimodality evaluation and treatment regardless of the STS subtype. Here, we review surgical, interventional radiology, radiation, and chemotherapy approaches to maximize disease palliation and improve survival, including occasionally long-term disease-free survival.

SurvivorCHESS to increase physical activity in colon cancer survivors: can we get them moving?

Purpose: This randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of SurvivorCHESS, an eHealth intervention, on physical activity in colon cancer survivors and to explore the impact of SurvivorCHESS on quality of life and distress.

Methods: This was a two-arm single-blinded multi-site randomized controlled trial comparing a control group to an intervention group receiving a smartphone with the SurvivorCHESS program.

Results: Participants using SurvivorCHESS (n = 144) increased their moderate to vigorous physical activities from 19.

Using ePrognosis to estimate 2-year all-cause mortality in older women with breast cancer: Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 49907 and 369901 (Alliance A151503).

Purpose: Tools to estimate survival, such as ePrognosis ( http://eprognosis.ucsf.edu/carey2.

Assessing Injury and Violence Prevention in North Carolina's Local Health Departments.

Background: Injury and violence-related morbidity and mortality present a major public health problem in North Carolina. However, the extent to which local health departments (LHDs) engage in injury and violence prevention (IVP) has not been well described.

Objectives: One objective of the current study is to provide a baseline assessment of IVP in the state's LHDs, describing capacity, priorities, challenges, and the degree to which programs are data-driven and evidence-based.

F-actin bundles direct the initiation and orientation of lamellipodia through adhesion-based signaling.

Mesenchymal cells such as fibroblasts are weakly polarized and reorient directionality by a lamellipodial branching mechanism that is stabilized by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling. However, the mechanisms by which new lamellipodia are initiated and directed are unknown. Using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy to monitor cytoskeletal and signaling dynamics in migrating cells, we show that peripheral F-actin bundles/filopodia containing fascin-1 serve as templates for formation and orientation of lamellipodia.

A randomized phase II efficacy and correlative studies of cetuximab with or without sorafenib in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Introduction: A combination of cetuximab and sorafenib in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic (R/M) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) were assessed for potential benefit.

Material And Methods: In a randomized phase II study, R/M HNSCC patients were treated with cetuximab 400mg/m(2) IV on day 1 followed by 250mg/m(2) IV weekly (Arm A), or cetuximab at the same dose/schedule plus sorafenib 400mg PO twice-a-day (Arm B). Each cycle was 21days.

Mesenchymal chemotaxis requires selective inactivation of myosin II at the leading edge via a noncanonical PLCγ/PKCα pathway.

Chemotaxis, migration toward soluble chemical cues, is critical for processes such as wound healing and immune surveillance and is exhibited by various cell types, from rapidly migrating leukocytes to slow-moving mesenchymal cells. To study mesenchymal chemotaxis, we observed cell migration in microfluidic chambers that generate stable gradients of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Surprisingly, we found that pathways implicated in amoeboid chemotaxis, such as PI3K and mammalian target of rapamycin signaling, are dispensable for PDGF chemotaxis.

Directed migration of mesenchymal cells: where signaling and the cytoskeleton meet.

Cell migration directed by spatial cues, or taxis, is a primary mechanism for orchestrating concerted and collective cell movements during development, wound repair, and immune responses. Compared with the classic example of amoeboid chemotaxis, in which fast-moving cells such as neutrophils are directed by gradients of soluble factors, directed migration of slow-moving mesenchymal cells such as fibroblasts is poorly understood. Mesenchymal cells possess a distinctive organization of the actin cytoskeleton and associated adhesion complexes as its primary mechanical system, generating the asymmetric forces required for locomotion without strong polarization.

ClearCode34: A prognostic risk predictor for localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Background: Gene expression signatures have proven to be useful tools in many cancers to identify distinct subtypes of disease based on molecular features that drive pathogenesis, and to aid in predicting clinical outcomes. However, there are no current signatures for kidney cancer that are applicable in a clinical setting.

Objective: To generate a signature biomarker for the clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) good risk (ccA) and poor risk (ccB) subtype classification that could be readily applied to clinical samples to develop an integrated model for biologically defined risk stratification.

Evading immune cell uptake and clearance requires PEG grafting at densities substantially exceeding the minimum for brush conformation.

Coating nanoparticles with polyethylene glycol (PEG), which reduces particle uptake and clearance by immune cells, is routinely used to extend the circulation times of nanoparticle therapeutics. Nevertheless, due to technical hurdles in quantifying the extent of PEG grafting, as well as in generating very dense PEG coatings, few studies have rigorously explored the precise PEG grafting density necessary to achieve desirable "stealth" properties. Here, using polymeric nanoparticles with precisely tunable PEG grafting, we found that, for a wide range of PEG lengths (0.