Update on management of craniopharyngiomas

Journal of Neuro-Oncology - Craniopharyngiomas are locally-aggressive tumors arising along the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Treatment is nuanced as a result of their proximity and adherence to...     

COVID-19-Impfintention von Eltern bezogen auf ihre Kinder

Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz - Mit Beginn der Impfkampagne hat eine neue Phase der Bewältigung der Coronapandemie begonnen. Zulassung und Empfehlung...     

Targeting MYC-driven replication stress in medulloblastoma with AZD1775 and gemcitabine

Journal of Neuro-Oncology - MYC-driven medulloblastomas are highly aggressive childhood tumors with dismal outcomes and a lack of new treatment paradigms. We identified that targeting replication...     

Sample size re-estimation for clinical trials with longitudinal negative binomial counts including time trends

In some diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, lesion counts obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are used as markers of disease progression. This leads to longitudinal, and typically overdispersed, count data outcomes in clinical trials. Models for such data invariably include a number of nuisance parameters, which can be difficult to specify at the planning stage, leading to considerable uncertainty in sample size specification. Consequently, blinded sample size re-estimation procedures are used, allowing for an adjustment of the sample size within an ongoing trial by estimating relevant nuisance parameters at an interim point, without compromising trial integrity. To date, the methods available for re-estimation have required an assumption that the mean count is time-constant within patients. We propose a new modeling approach that maintains the advantages of established procedures but allows for general underlying and treatment-specific time trends in the mean response. A simulation study is conducted to assess the effectiveness of blinded sample size re-estimation methods over fixed designs. Sample sizes attained through blinded sample size re-estimation procedures are shown to maintain the desired study power without inflating the Type I error rate and the procedure is demonstrated on MRI data from a recent study in multiple sclerosis.     

Grappling with complexity: Medical students’ reflective writings about challenging patient encounters as a window into professional identity formation

Aim: Clerkship-specific interactive reflective writing (IRW)-enhanced reflection may enhance professional identity formation (PIF), a fundamental goal of medical education. PIF process as revealed in students? reflective writing (RW) has been understudied.

Methods: The authors developed an IRW curriculum within a Family Medicine Clerkship (FMC) and analyzed students? reflections about challenging/difficult patient encounters using immersion-crystallization qualitative analysis.

Results: The qualitative analysis identified 26 unique emergent themes and five distinct thematic categories (1. Role of emotions, 2. Role of cognition, 3. Behaviorally responding to situational context, 4. Patient factors, and 5. External factors) as well as an emergent PIF model from a directed content analysis. The model describes students? backgrounds, emotions and previous experiences in medicine merging with external factors and processed during student?patient interactions. The RWs also revealed that processing often involves polarities (e.g. empathy/lack of empathy or encouragement/disillusionment) as well as dissonance between idealized visions and lived reality.

Conclusions: IRW facilitates and ideally supports grappling with the lived reality of medicine; uncovering a “positive hidden curriculum” within medical education. The authors propose engaging learners in guided critical reflection about complex experiences for meaning-making within a safe learning climate as a valuable way to cultivate reflective, resilient professionals with “prepared” minds and hearts for inevitable challenges of healthcare practice.     

African-American Adolescents’ Weight Loss Skills Utilization: Effects on Weight Change in a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial

Objective

Successful weight loss interventions for African-Americans adolescents are lacking. Cognitive-behavioral interventions seek to develop weight loss skills (e.g., counting calories, goal setting, managing one's environment). Little is known about how well adolescents implement such skills in their daily lives. Study aims were to (1) examine weight loss skills utilization at midpoint and end of a 6-month cognitive-behavioral/motivational interviewing weight loss sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART), and (2) determine if greater skill utilization predicted weight loss at treatment end and 3 months post-treatment.