Yoga is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies to manage illness. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the effects of yoga on psychological health, quality of life, and physical health of patients with cancer. Studies were identified through a systematic search of seven electronic databases and were selected if they used a randomized controlled trial design to examine the effects of yoga in patients with cancer. The quality of each article was rated by two of the authors using the PEDro Scale. Ten articles were selected; their PEDro scores ranged from 4 to 7. The yoga groups compared to waitlist control groups or supportive therapy groups showed significantly greater improvements in psychological health: anxiety (P = .009), depression (P = .002), distress (P = .003), and stress (P = .006). However, due to the mixed and low to fair quality and small number of studies conducted, the findings are preliminary and limited and should be confirmed through higher-quality, randomized controlled trials.

Early detection of patients at risk of sternal complications is essential to facilitate prevention and optimize timely intervention. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to identify risk factors associated with sternal complications. The review included 17 full-text studies, of which 10 were entered into meta-analyses. Female gender, diabetes mellitus, obesity, bilateral internal mammary artery grafts, reoperation for postoperative complications, and blood product requirement were reported as significant predictors of sternal infection. The compilation of these risk factors may help to screen and stratify patients at risk of impaired sternal healing and warrants further investigation.

The addition of nonsolvent in the casting solution can suppress the formation of macrovoids in polymeric membranes if the added nonsolvent can induce polymer gelation. FTIR microscopy reveals that the formation of PMMA gels would result in a great reduction of the nonsolvent flux from coagulation bath to the casting solution, which can well account for the disappearance of macrovoids. The associated gelation mechanism was also investigated. After the phase separation induced by the added nonsolvent, unvitrified polymer gels were obtained if the polymer-rich phase has a suitable elasticity. Although the unvitrified gels are not thermodynamically stable, they can be sustained long enough to affect the membrane morphology during membrane formation. The gelation boundary can be determined by the falling ball experiment, and the equality of the storage and loss moduli in the polymer solution can be used to describe the required rheological property for the gels.

This systematic review has identified the volume of literature demonstrating that barriers and enablers to PA in lung cancer are multidimensional and span diverse factors. These include patient-level factors, such as symptoms, comorbidities, sedentary lifestyle, mood and fear, and environmental factors. These factors should be considered to identify and develop suitable interventions and clinical services in attempt to increase PA in patients with lung cancer.