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Objectives: This study examined the association of ED use in the first year of diagnosis and patient experiences in care among older adults with hematologic malignancies., Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional design using SEER-CAHPS® data from 2002 to 2015 to study Medicare fee-for-service enrollees with a primary diagnosis of leukemia or lymphoma. We linked the CAHPS survey data (patient-reported experiences with health services) to patients' cancer registry information and Medicare outpatient claims from the SEER-CAHPS resource. We estimated associations of ED use and clinical characteristics with two CAHPS outcomes - "getting care quickly" (timeliness) and "getting needed care" (access) - with bivariate and multivariate analyses., Results: The analytic sample included 751 patients, 125 of whom had an ED claim in the first year of cancer diagnosis. The most frequent ED diagnosis clusters were fever and infection (n = 17, 13.6%), orthopedic and injury (16, 12.8%) and pain (16, 12.8%). Significantly more enrollees with an ED claim were diagnosed with lymphoma (p < 0.01), lived in rural areas (p < 0.01), and lived in areas with many families living in poverty (p < 0.01). In adjusted models, enrollees with an ED claim reported significantly worse access to care (β - 4.83; 95%CI -9.29,-0.38; p = 0.03)., Conclusion: The management of urgent care concerns for adults with hematologic malignancies remains an important clinical and quality improvement imperative. Further study is warranted to enhance the management of emergent complications in older adults receiving care for hematologic malignancies, with efforts that enhance coordination of ambulatory oncology care., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Context: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is one of the most common symptoms experienced by cancer patients after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Yoga is an approach with supportive evidence to improve CRF in different cancer populations, but to our knowledge, it has not been tested in an adult HCT population., Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a yoga intervention offered to adult HCT survivors with moderate-to-severe CRF., Methods: This feasibility study used a single-arm, pretest-posttest design. Adult HCT survivors were enrolled in a six-week restorative yoga intervention that consisted of a one-hour once-weekly class with twice-weekly home practice using a DVD., Results: Twenty participants (13 women and seven men) enrolled in this study with a mean age of 51 years (SD = 12.5). The sample consisted of 19 allogeneic HCT survivors, seven of whom had a history of acute graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD), six with active, extensive chronic GVHD, and one autologous HCT survivor. The accrual acceptance rate was 23.2% (20/86 HCT survivors) and retention rate was 60% (12/20). Overall adherence was 45.4%. No adverse events were reported., Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that a restorative yoga intervention in adult HCT survivors is safe and feasible. The incidence of GVHD may have impacted adherence. Strategies to improve accrual acceptance, retention, and adherence are needed., (Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Provider communication that supports patient autonomy has been associated with numerous positive patient outcomes. However, to date, no research has examined the relationship between perceived provider communication style and patient-assessed decision quality in breast cancer., Methods: Using a population-based sample of women with localized breast cancer, we assessed patient perceptions of autonomy-supportive communication from their surgeons and medical oncologists, as well as patient-reported decision quality. We used multivariable linear regression to examine the association between autonomy-supportive communication and subjective decision quality for surgery and chemotherapy decisions, controlling for sociodemographic and clinical factors, as well as patient-reported communication preference (non-directive or directive)., Results: Among the 1690 women included in the overall sample, patient-reported decision quality scores were positively associated with higher levels of perceived autonomy-supportive communication from surgeons (β=0.30; p<0.001) and medical oncologists (β=0.26; p<0.001). Patient communication style preference moderated the association between physician communication style received and perceived decision quality., Conclusion: Autonomy-supportive communication by physicians was associated with higher subjective decision quality among women with localized breast cancer. These results support future efforts to design interventions that enhance autonomy-supportive communication., Practice Implications: Autonomy-supportive communication by cancer doctors can improve patients' perceived decision quality., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Inconsistent evidence exists on whether obesity is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer death post-radical prostatectomy. We examined data from three large health plans to evaluate if an increased body mass index (BMI) at prostate cancer diagnosis is related to prostate cancer mortality, Subjects and Methods: This population-based case-control study included 751 men with prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy. Cases were men who died due to prostate cancer (N=323) and matched controls (N=428). We used multivariable logistic regression models to assess the association between BMI at diagnosis and prostate cancer mortality, adjusted for Gleason score, PSA, tumour characteristics, and matching factors., Results: Study subjects were classified into the following BMI (kg/m2) categories: healthy (18.5-24.9), overweight (25-29.9) and obese (≥30). Nearly 43% of the participants had a BMI ≥25 at diagnosis. A higher fraction of cases (30%) were obese compared to controls (22%). Overall, obese men had more than a 50% increase in prostate cancer mortality (adjusted odds ratio=1.50 [95% CI, 1.03-2.19]) when compared to men with healthy BMI. After stratifying by Gleason score, the odds of mortality generally rose with increasing BMI. The strongest effect was observed in the Gleason score 8+ category (2.37, 95% CI: 1.11-5.09). These associations persisted after adjusting for PSA at diagnosis and other tumour characteristics., Conclusions: These results suggest that BMI at diagnosis is strongly correlated with prostate cancer mortality, and that men with aggressive disease have a markedly greater odds of death if they are overweight or obese., (Copyright © 2013 Asian Oceanian Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)