There are little data on the quality of cancer treatment information available on social media. Here, we quantify the accuracy of cancer treatment information on social media and its potential for harm. Two cancer experts reviewed 50 of the most popular social media articles on each of the 4 most common cancers. The proportion of misinformation and potential for harm were reported for all 200 articles, and their association with the number of social media engagements using a 2-sample Wilcoxon rank-sum test. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Of 200 total articles, 32.5% (n = 65) contained misinformation and 30.5% (n = 61) contained harmful information. Among articles containing misinformation, 76.9% (50 of 65) contained harmful information. The median number of engagements for articles with misinformation was greater than factual articles (median [IQR] = 2300 [1200-4700] vs 1600 [819-4700], P = .05). The median number of engagements for articles with harmful information was statistically significantly greater than safe articles (median [IQR] = 2300 [1400-4700] vs 1500 [810-4700], P = .007).

This study aimed to examine the sphincter-preservation rate variations in rectal cancer surgery. The influence of hospital volume on sphincter-preservation rates and short-term outcomes (anastomotic leakage (AL), positive circumferential resection margin (CRM), 30- and 90-day mortality rates) were also analysed.

Non-metastasized rectal cancer patients treated between 2009 and 2016 were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Surgical procedures were divided into sphincter-preserving surgery and an end colostomy group. Multivariable logistic regression models were generated to estimate the probability of undergoing sphincter-preserving surgery according to the hospital of surgery and tumour height (low, 5 cm or less, mid, more than 5 cm to 10 cm, and high, more than 10 cm). The influence of annual hospital volume (less than 20, 20-39, more than 40 resections) on sphincter-preservation rate and short-term outcomes was also examined.

A total of 20 959 patients were included (11 611 sphincter preserv significant hospital variation in sphincter-preservation rates in rectal surgery. The annual hospital volume, however, was not associated with sphincter-preservation rates in low, and high rectal cancer nor with other short-term outcomes.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (Pan-NETs) are rare tumours that often present with or develop liver metastases. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate liver surgery and thermal hepatic ablation (THA) of Pan-NET liver metastases and to compare the outcomes with those of a control group.

Patients with Pan-NET treated in Uppsala University Hospital and Sahlgrenska University Hospital from 1995-2018 were included. Patient records were scrutinized for baseline parameters, survival, treatment and complications.

Some 108 patients met the criteria for inclusion; 57 patients underwent treatment with liver surgery or THA and 51 constitute the control group. Median follow-up was 3.93 years. Five-year survival in the liver surgery/THA group was 70.6 (95 per cent c.i. 0.57 to 0.84) per cent versus 42.4 (95 per cent c.i. 40.7 to 59.1) per cent in the control group (P = 0.016) and median survival was 9.1 (95 per cent c.i. 6.5 to 11.7) versus 4.3  (95 per cent c.i. 3.4-5.2) years. In a multivariable analysis, surgery or THA was associated with a decreased death-years rate (hazard ratio 0.403 (95 per cent c.i. 0.208 to 0.782, P = 0.007).

Liver surgery and/or THA was associated with longer overall survival in Pan-NET with acceptable mortality and morbidity rates. These treatments should thus be considered in Pan-NET patients with reasonable tumour burden in an intent to alleviate symptoms and to improve survival.

Liver surgery and/or THA was associated with longer overall survival in Pan-NET with acceptable mortality and morbidity rates. These treatments should thus be considered in Pan-NET patients with reasonable tumour burden in an intent to alleviate symptoms and to improve survival.

This study investigates different barriers preventing a cohort of Egyptian HIV/HCV coinfected patients from accessing HCV treatment, despite being available and free of charge, aiming to improve the long-term outcomes of coinfected patients and decreasing their liver-related morbidity and mortality.

This study included HIV patients who were referred to Kasr Alainy Viral Hepatitis Center to receive HCV treatment and who had to continue pretreatment assessment in order to receive direct acting antiviral agents free of charge. Patients who did not attend within 90 d were questioned via a telephone interview. Questions addressed sociodemographic status, HIV status and the main barriers to accessing healthcare.

Overall, 474 HIV/HCV coinfected patients were eligible for HCV treatment and 223 (47.1%) patients did not complete work-up for HCV treatment. Fear of community stigma concerning HIV/HCV was the most important barrier to compliance with treatment (73.3%), followed by lack of a supportive work environment and employment opportunities (51.5%), whereas 39.3% stopped follow-up due to the lack of integrated services in the healthcare facility.

Managing HCV in HCV/HIV coinfected patients still represents a major challenge, not only for healthcare providers, but also at a community level, to improve community awareness and manage the major obstacle facing those patients regarding community stigma.

Managing HCV in HCV/HIV coinfected patients still represents a major challenge, not only for healthcare providers, but also at a community level, to improve community awareness and manage the major obstacle facing those patients regarding community stigma.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a life-threatening respiratory infection caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV-2), a novel human coronavirus. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization in March 2020 for its continuous and rapid spread worldwide. Rapidly emerging COVID-19 epicenters and mutants of concerns have created mammoth chaos in healthcare sectors across the globe. With over 185 million infections and approximately 4 million deaths globally, COVID-19 continues its unchecked spread despite all mitigation measures. Until effective and affordable antiretroviral drugs are made available and the population at large is vaccinated, timely diagnosis of the infection and adoption of COVID-appropriate behavior remains major tool available to curtail the still escalating COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an updated overview of various techniques of COVID-19 testing in human samples and also discusses, in brief, the biochemical composition and mode of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2. Technological advancement in various molecular, serological and immunological techniques including mainly the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), CRISPR, lateral flow assays (LFAs), and immunosensors are reviewed.The first coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) interim guidance released by the World Health Organization recommended suspension of non-urgent community health interventions, including mass drug administration (MDA) for neglected tropical diseases. However, with no end in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic, it was crucial to find ways to restart MDA while testing measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission between health workers, volunteers and communities. Consequently, guidelines were developed for delivering MDA safely in a COVID-19 context and the training and implementation were assessed through an observation checklist. The study also gathered data on the feasibility of using the MDA platform to disseminate COVID-19 health education. The results suggest that delivering MDA safely in a COVID-19 context is possible but revealed significant challenges in using the MDA platform for COVID-19 education.Single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) can be used to characterize cellular heterogeneity in thousands of cells. The reconstruction of a gene network based on coexpression patterns is a fundamental task in scRNA-seq analyses, and the mutual exclusivity of gene expression can be critical for understanding such heterogeneity. Here, we propose an approach for detecting communities from a genetic network constructed on the basis of coexpression properties. The community-based comparison of multiple coexpression networks enables the identification of functionally related gene clusters that cannot be fully captured through differential gene expression-based analysis. We also developed a novel metric referred to as the exclusively expressed index (EEI) that identifies mutually exclusive gene pairs from sparse scRNA-seq data. EEI quantifies and ranks the exclusive expression levels of all gene pairs from binary expression patterns while maintaining robustness against a low sequencing depth. We applied our methods to glioblastoma scRNA-seq data and found that gene communities were partially conserved after serum stimulation despite a considerable number of differentially expressed genes. We also demonstrate that the identification of mutually exclusive gene sets with EEI can improve the sensitivity of capturing cellular heterogeneity. Our methods complement existing approaches and provide new biological insights, even for a large, sparse dataset, in the single-cell analysis field.

Data from the NHANES indicate that BMI has increased in some subgroups of children and adolescents in the United States over the past 20 y; however, BMI is an indirect measure of body fatness.

We assessed changes in DXA-derived measures of adiposity in a nationally representative population of US children and adolescents aged 8-19 y from 1999-2006 to 2011-2018.

Using data from the NHANES, we compared the means and distributions of DXA-derived percentage body fat (%BF) and fat mass index (FMI; fat mass/height2 in kg/m2) between 1999-2006 (n=10,231) and 2011-2018 (n=6923) among males and females by age group, race and Hispanic origin, and BMI categories. Estimates were standardized by age and race and Hispanic origin.

From 1999-2006 to 2011-2018, mean %BF increased from 25.6% to 26.3% (change in %BF 0.7%; 95% CI 0.2%, 1.2%; P<0.01) among all males, whereas mean %BF increased from 33.0% to 33.7% (change in %BF 0.7%; 95% CI 0.2%, 1.2%; P=0.01) and mean FMI increased from 7.7 to 8.0 fat mass kg/m2 (change in FMI 0.3 fat mass kg/m2; 95% CI 0.0, 0.6 fat mass kg/m2; P=0.02) among all females. Changes were not consistent across all age, race and Hispanic origin, and BMI categories. Both %BF and FMI increased among Mexican-American children and adolescents, but not other race and Hispanic origin groups.

Among US children and adolescents, DXA-derived measures of adiposity increased from 1999-2006 to 2011-2018, albeit not consistently in every age, race and Hispanic origin, and BMI subgroup. These data reinforce the need to consider other measures, besides BMI categories, when studying adiposity in children and adolescents.

Among US children and adolescents, DXA-derived measures of adiposity increased from 1999-2006 to 2011-2018, albeit not consistently in every age, race and Hispanic origin, and BMI subgroup. These data reinforce the need to consider other measures, besides BMI categories, when studying adiposity in children and adolescents.