Integrative oncology aims to coordinate the delivery of conventional medicine and evidence-supported complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to patients receiving cancer care. This field developed out of an increased interest in CAM usage among cancer patients. However, CAM use among medically underserved cancer patients remains to be well characterized. We evaluated CAM awareness as well as prevalence and characteristics of CAM use in 170 consecutive, medically underserved cancer patients presenting to a large, academic, inner-city cancer clinic, using a survey tool. Fifty-three participants declined participation and 17 survey results were incomplete. Therefore, 100 survey results were included in the final analysis. There were 65 males and 35 females in the survey with a mean age of 64.2 years. About 98% of the respondents were African American while 2% identified themselves as Hispanic. About 45% of patients had metastatic cancer, 24% had early-stage disease while 31% of patients were not aware of the stage of their cancer. About 55% patients had elementary school or lower level of education while only 16% had a college degree or higher. About 92% of respondents were unemployed. Some knowledge of CAM was reported by 22% of patients, while CAM use was reported in only 16% of patients. Female sex and college degree were significantly associated with CAM use. The most commonly used CAM modality was meditation (56%), followed by herbal remedies (31%), yoga (31%), and acupuncture (12%). Among CAM users, a majority used multiple CAM therapies. All users reported benefit from CAM use. Emotional wellbeing was the most common benefit followed by improvement in treatment related adverse effects, chemotherapy related symptoms, pain, and sleep. Even though the majority of our surveyed patients never used CAM, 90% of non-users were interested in gaining more information about the various CAM options and exploring its use and potential benefits. The majority (70%) wanted their primary oncologist to provide information about CAM options and discuss its safety and potential complementary benefit in management of their cancer and associated symptoms.
Introduction: Plasmablastic lymphoma (PL) is an aggressive variant of lymphoma, with strong association with HIV. Despite significant improvements in the survival of other lymphomas, PL has a short overall survival (14 months). The association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and MYC chromosomal translocations are defining features of PL. However, the genetic causes and the role of specific mutation in PL are largely unknown. This limitation hinders the design of therapeutic approaches aimed to improve PL survival. Therefore, we performed a comprehensive analysis of the genetic landscape in PL. Methodology: Whole exon sequencing of 52 de novo PL tumors from HIV+ patients and matched normal tissues (15%) using high throughput sequencing on the Illumina platform. Of these 52 patient samples, 10 tumor and 4 normal control samples were removed due to poor sequencing quality. Mapping and variant calls were performed using BWA and Varscan softwares. Variants call filtering criteria include: exon location, minimum coverage of 5%, and onside T-test P value ≤ of 0.01 or 0.02). For immunohistochemistry, we use p-TAK1 Thr184-187 (Cell signaling) and p-BTK Tyr551(Termofisher) antibodies. Results: Analysis of exome sequencing data identified 1562 recurrent somatic mutations (p-value ≤0.01) in 711 genes, including 304 mutations previously identified in cancer driving genes. The most common recurrent pathways affected within the top 2000 gene mutations with p≤0.02 comprised mainly of NF-κB signaling followed by immune response (antigen presentation by MHC class II and the alternative and lectin induced complement pathways), reverse signaling by Ephrin B, mTOR/PTEN and EGFR/RAS pathways. Based on the lack of canonical NF-κB activation previously reported (Chapman J et al. Leukemia 2015; 29: 2270-2273) and the important role of MYD88-p100 signaling pathway in B cell differentiation into plasmablast (Guo et al. Oncogene 2016. 36(29):4224-4232), we investigated the status of p100 signaling in PL using a published gene expression dataset (Chapman J. et al Leukemia 2015). Our analysis demonstrated that most PL (70%) manifest constitutive p100 signaling. Therefore, we focused on mutations in genes involved in the NF-κB activation. Mutations in the NF-κB pathway were identified in all the analyzed cases with an average of 4 mutated genes in each tumor. Consistent with the previously reported downregulation in RNA expression of genes implicated in the BCR and canonical NF-κB signaling, we found deleterious mutations in genes in the BCR pathway that have been previously reported in lymphomas, including MATL1, FYN and SYK (24%, 16% and 15%, respectively). In contrast, we found frequent gene mutations in the MYD88-PI3P pathway that never have been reported in lymphomas, including SHIP2, DOCK8, PLCG2 in 50%, 39% and 37% of the cases, respectively. These findings are of relevance, as this mutations are expected to results in increased MYD88/TAK1 and BTK signaling (Shinners NP et al J. Imm. 2007, 179 (6) 3872-3880) and can be targeted by specific inhibitors. To evaluate the status of phosphorylation of TAK1 and BTK in these tumors, we performed immunohistochemistry analysis in 15 PL, demonstrating high levels of phosphorylation of these proteins in all tumors analyzed. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first in-depth analysis of PL genome. Our data provide the most comprehensive genetic portrait of PL, provides potential genetic causes of this disease and identify potential druggable targets that deserve further clinical exploration. Disclosures Flowers: National Cancer Institute: Research Funding; Millennium/Takeda: Research Funding; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group: Research Funding; OptumRx: Consultancy; Denovo Biopharma: Consultancy; Genentech/Roche: Research Funding; V Foundation: Research Funding; Abbvie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics/ Janssen: Consultancy; Spectrum: Consultancy; Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Gilead: Research Funding; Genentech/Roche: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; Janssen Pharmaceutical: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; BeiGene: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy. Lossos:Affimed: Research Funding. Bernal-Mizrachi:Takeda Pharmaceutical Company: Research Funding; Kodikaz Therapeutic Solutions: Consultancy, Equity Ownership.
PURPOSE: Pain and constipation are common among patients with cancer and remain inadequately controlled in many. The Quality Oncology Practice Initiative assessment of pain and constipation at the Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Health System identified documentation to be below benchmark levels. A quality improvement initiative to improve pain and constipation management was conducted. METHODS: Given the low baseline documentation rates for pain (60%) and constipation (20%), we aimed for an increase of 20 percentage points within 1 year. On the basis of cause-and-effect analysis and provider questionnaires to understand fully the causal factors, our multidisciplinary team developed a new provider note template to integrate nurse’s assessment of pain and constipation into the provider’s documentation. A new order panel was developed in the electronic medical record to link appropriate orders with the pain and constipation plan. RESULTS: The integration of the initial nursing assessment into the provider note template increased pain score documentation from 66.7% to 100% ( P < .01), and the pain management plan improved from 65.3% to 86.4% ( P = .06). Similarly, constipation assessment documentation improved from 20.4% to 100% ( P < .01), and a documented constipation plan improved accordingly from 11.2% to 29.1% ( P < .01). As a result of this intervention, pain control at the third clinic visit improved from 61.5% to 86.8% ( P < .01). Emergency department visits related to pain and constipation decreased (16.2% to 14.9%; P = .19), and hospitalizations marginally increased (1.6% to 3.6%) during the study period ( P =.28). CONCLUSION: A standardized visit template and hardwired assessment of pain and constipation exceeded the goal for improvement in documentation and positively affected outcomes.
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