Patient-Reported Barriers to Healthcare Access Among Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer: Insights from 45,000 Participants in the All of Us Research Program.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer patients often face care delays and cost-related unmet needs, increasing the probability for treatment nonadherence and adverse outcomes. The extent of these barriers within the first three months of diagnosis remains unclear. We aimed to identify early barriers to care for targeted interventions.

Consensus Guideline for the Management of Gastric Cancer with Synchronous Peritoneal Metastases.

Background: Gastric cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases (GCPM) is a debilitating disease with limited treatment options. This manuscript describes an update of the 2018 Chicago Consensus Guidelines addressing the management of GCPM in line with most recent evidence.

Methods: A clinical management pathway was updated through two rounds of a Delphi Consensus to assess agreement levels with pathway blocks.

Consensus guideline for the management of gastric cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases.

Background: Gastric cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases is a debilitating disease with limited treatment options. This article describes an update of the 2018 Chicago Consensus guidelines addressing the management of gastric cancer with synchronous peritoneal metastases in line with the most recent evidence.

Methods: A clinical management pathway was updated through two rounds of a Delphi consensus to assess agreement levels with pathway blocks.

Factors Associated with Preoperative Attrition from a Large, Racially and Ethnically Representative Bariatric Program in the USA: A Single-Center Retrospective, Cohort Study.

Background: Preoperative attrition from metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) programs remains a barrier for a subset of patients seeking surgical treatment of obesity. Prior analyses examining factors associated with attrition have been limited by study samples that are small in number and predominantly non-Hispanic, White. We aimed to assess factors associated with preoperative attrition using a large, racially and ethnically representative study sample.

Quality of gastrointestinal surgical oncology care according to insurance status.

Background: Despite efforts to expand insurance coverage, substantial inequalities persist, particularly in cancer treatment. This study aimed to evaluate whether quality disparities exist across major insurance plans for patients undergoing curative-intent resection for gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of adult patients in the National Cancer Database diagnosed with GI malignant neoplasms between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2020.

OncoSexome: the landscape of sex-based differences in oncologic diseases.

The NIH policy on sex as biological variable (SABV) emphasized the importance of sex-based differences in precision oncology. Over 50% of clinically actionable oncology genes are sex-biased, indicating differences in drug efficacy. Research has identified sex differences in non-reproductive cancers, highlighting the need for comprehensive sex-based cancer data.

An early experience on the effect of solid organ transplant status on hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

We compared the outcome of COVID-19 in immunosuppressed solid organ transplant (SOT) patients to a transplant naïve population. In total, 10 356 adult hospital admissions for COVID-19 from March 1, 2020 to April 27, 2020 were analyzed. Data were collected on demographics, baseline clinical conditions, medications, immunosuppression, and COVID-19 course.

Facility of Origin Predicts Mortality After Colonic Perforation.

Introduction: Colonic perforation often requires emergent intervention and carries high morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to determine whether nonclinical factors, such as transition of care from outpatient facilities to inpatient settings, are associated with increased risk of mortality in patients who underwent emergent surgical intervention for colonic perforation.

Materials And Methods: Using the 2006-2015 ACS National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, we identified adult patients who underwent emergent partial colectomy with primary anastomosis ± protecting ostomy or partial colectomy with ostomy with intraoperative finding of wound class III or IV for a diagnosis of perforated viscus.

Comparing Surgical Outcomes Among Patients Admitted for Small Bowel Obstruction on Weekend vs. Weekday.

Introduction: Surgical intervention is important in reducing morbidity and mortality among patients admitted for small bowel obstruction (SBO). Patient-specific variables such as age and comorbidities are risk factors for adverse outcomes after surgery for SBO. However, the effect of weekend admission on outcomes has not been well delineated in the literature.

Automated Forelimb Tasks for Rodents: Current Advantages and Limitations, and Future Promise.

Rodent tests of function have advanced our understanding of movement, largely through the human training and testing and manual assessment. Tools such as reaching and grasping of a food pellet have been widely adopted because they are effective and simple to use. However, these tools are time-consuming, subjective, and often qualitative.

The Knob Supination Task: A Semi-automated Method for Assessing Forelimb Function in Rats.

Tasks that accurately measure dexterity in animal models are critical to understand hand function. Current rat behavioral tasks that measure dexterity largely use video analysis of reaching or food manipulation. While these tasks are easy to implement and are robust across disease models, they are subjective and laborious for the experimenter.

Dexterity: A MATLAB-based analysis software suite for processing and visualizing data from tasks that measure arm or forelimb function.

Background: Hand function is critical for independence, and neurological injury often impairs dexterity. To measure hand function in people or forelimb function in animals, sensors are employed to quantify manipulation. These sensors make assessment easier and more quantitative and allow automation of these tasks.

An Automated Test of Rat Forelimb Supination Quantifies Motor Function Loss and Recovery After Corticospinal Injury.

Background: Rodents are the primary animal model of corticospinal injury and repair, yet current behavioral tests do not show the large deficits after injury observed in humans. Forearm supination is critical for hand function and is highly impaired by corticospinal injury in both humans and rats. Current tests of rodent forelimb function do not measure this movement.