Perceived barriers to physical activity during the 2nd lockdown in a northeastern state of Brazil

Sport Sciences for Health - The practice of physical activity has been recommended during the pandemic period of COVID-19 as a way of preventing the worsening of physical and mental health. After...     

Use and Applicability of the Gail Model to Calculate Breast Cancer Risk: A Scoping Review

Objective: To perform a scoping review of the applicability of the Gail model in different countries for different ethnicities. Methods: The review was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and search strategies based on the PICOS approach. The reviewed articles were included if they were published between 2013 and 2018 in English, Portuguese, or Spanish; were original articles available in full online; and described the use of the Gail model. The PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science data bases were searched. Results: A total of 38 articles eligible for analysis were identified, of which 16 used the Gail model to assess breast cancer risk in women, eight analyzed the applicability of this tool in their population, seven compared the tool and/or modified it according to the specific risk factors of their population, and seven cited the model in determining eligibility for chemoprevention. Conclusion: The Gail model has different applicabilities Greater effectiveness and breast cancer risk are found in developed countries.     

How is the quality of the available evidence on molar-incisor hypomineralization treatment? An overview of systematic reviews

Clinical Oral Investigations - This overview analyzed the quality of the systematic reviews (SRs) available on treatments for molar-incisor hypomineralization (MIH). Six electronic databases were...     

Functional estrogen receptor signal transduction pathway activity and antihormonal therapy response in low-grade ovarian carcinoma

Background

Advanced low-grade ovarian carcinoma (LGOC) is difficult to treat. In several studies, high estrogen receptor (ER) protein expression was observed in patients with LGOC, which suggests that antihormonal therapy (AHT) is a treatment option. However, only a subgroup of patients respond to AHT, and this response cannot be adequately predicted by currently used immunohistochemistry (IHC). A possible explanation is that IHC only takes the ligand, but not the activity, of the whole signal transduction pathway (STP) into account. Therefore, in this study, the authors assessed whether functional STP activity can be an alternative tool to predict response to AHT in LGOC.

Methods

Tumor tissue samples were obtained from patients with primary or recurrent LGOC who subsequently received AHT. Histoscores of ER and progesterone receptor (PR) were determined. In addition, STP activity of the ER STP and of six other STPs known to play a role in ovarian cancer was assessed and compared with the STP activity of healthy postmenopausal fallopian tube epithelium.

Results

Patients who had normal ER STP activity had a progression-free survival (PFS) of 16.1 months. This was significantly shorter in patients who had low and very high ER STP activity, with a median PFS of 6.0 and 2.1 months, respectively (p < .001). Unlike ER histoscores, PR histoscores were strongly correlated to the ER STP activity and thus to PFS.

Conclusions

Aberrant low and very high functional ER STP activity and low PR histoscores in patients with LGOC indicate decreased response to AHT. ER IHC is not representative of functional ER STP activity and is not related to PFS.     

Computer-Aided Diagnosis of Vertebral Compression Fractures Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Radiomics

Journal of Digital Imaging - Vertebral Compression Fracture (VCF) occurs when the vertebral body partially collapses under the action of compressive forces. Non-traumatic VCFs can be secondary to...     

Home sleep apnea testing: an accuracy study

Sleep and Breathing - There are no studies comparing tests performed at home with those carried out in the laboratory, using the same device. The&nbsp;only studies that have been performed...     

How effective has the Spanish lockdown been to battle COVID-19? A spatial analysis of the coronavirus propagation across provinces

This paper examines the propagation of COVID-19 across the Spanish provinces and assesses the effectiveness of the Spanish lockdown of the population implemented on March 14, 2020 in order to battle this pandemic. To achieve these objectives, a standard spatial econometric model used in economics is adapted to resemble the popular reproduction models employed in the epidemiological literature. In addition, we introduce a counterfactual exercise that allows us to examine the Gross domestic product (GDP) gains of bringing forward the date of the Spanish Lockdown. We find that the number of COVID-19 cases would have been reduced by 70.4% in the absence of spatial propagation between the Spanish provinces. We also determine that the lockdown prevented the propagation of the virus within and between provinces. As such, the Spanish lockdown reduced the number of potential COVID-19 cases by 82.8%. However, the number of coronavirus cases would have been reduced by an additional 11.6% if the lockdown had been brought forward to March 7, 2020. Finally, an earlier lockdown would have saved approximately 26,900,000,000 euros.     

Effectiveness,safety and quality of life of trifluridine/tipiracil in pretreated patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: Real-world data from the noninterventional TACTIC study in Germany

The prospective, multicenter, noninterventional TACTIC study assessed effectiveness and safety of trifluridine/tipiracil (FTD/TPI) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in a real-world setting in Germany, thus evaluating the external validity of the findings from the pivotal RECOURSE trial. Primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Secondary objectives included progression-free survival (PFS), safety, and quality of life (QoL). Subgroups comprised patients with good (<3 metastatic sites at inclusion, ≥18 months from diagnosis of first metastasis to inclusion) or poor (remaining patients) prognostic characteristics (GPC/PPC). GPC without liver metastases was considered best prognostic characteristics (BPC). In total, 307 eligible patients (pretreated or not suitable for other available therapies) were treated with FTD/TPI. Overall, median [95%-CI] OS was 7.4 months [6.4-8.6], median PFS was 2.9 months [2.8-3.3]. In BPC (n = 65) and GPC (n = 176) compared to PPC (n = 124) subgroup, median OS (13.3 [9.1-17.6] vs 8.9 [7.6-9.8] vs 5.1 [4.4-7.0] months) and median PFS (4.0 [3.3-5.3] vs 3.4 [3.0-3.7] vs 2.6 [2.4-2.8] months) were longer. Patient-reported QoL, assessed by validated questionnaires (EQ-5D-5L, PRO-CTCAE), was stable throughout FTD/TPI treatment. Predominant FTD/TPI-related adverse events of grades 3 or 4 were neutropenia (13.0%), leukopenia (7.5%), and anemia (5.2%). Altogether, palliative FTD/TPI therapy in patients with pretreated mCRC was associated with prolonged survival, delayed progression, maintained health-related QoL, and manageable toxicity. Low metastatic burden and indolent disease were favorable prognostic factors for survival. TACTIC confirms the effectiveness and safety of FTD/TPI, highlighting its value in routine clinical practice.