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Background: Lack of diversity in the cancer research workforce persists, which the new requirement for all National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers to have a Plan to Enhance Diversity (PED) seeks to address. However, it is not well understood how different cancer centers are approaching the development and execution of these plans. Our objective was to assess how cancer centers are establishing and pursuing their PED., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of members of the Cancer Center Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Network, which includes all NCI-designated cancer centers and several emerging centers. A total of 62 cancer centers (75% of those invited), including 58 NCI-designated cancer centers (81% of those with this designation), participated and completed a questionnaire that assessed PED leadership, major challenges, implementation strategies, and approach to evaluate PED progress., Results: The most common PED challenge identified is recruiting diverse faculty (68% of centers), and the most common strategy currently used to address this is reviewing and revising faculty recruitment practices (67%). The most common approach centers are using to measure PED progress is shifts in demographics (68%), and data on the demographics of faculty, leadership, and trainees are available at 79%, 81%, and 75% of centers, respectively., Conclusions: Almost all centers have established a PED leadership structure, however, there is considerable variation in the approaches used to realize PED goals and in the resources provided to support PED work. Realizing opportunities to share and implement common best practices and exemplar programs has the potential to elevate the impact of PED efforts nationally., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Background: Fulfilment of patients' expectations has been associated with greater patient satisfaction with care and greater adherence to medical advice. However, little is know about how race influences patient expectations., Objective: To determine the association between patient race and patient expectations of their primary care physician., Methods: The design was a cross-sectional study. Setting and participants were sample of 709 primary care patients from four clinic sites at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania Health System. The measures were an expectations instrument asking patients to rate the necessity of the physician performing 13 activities during the index visit, self-reported race, demographics, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, the Charlson Comorbidity Index and SF-12., Results: After adjusting for age, sex, education, clinic site, comorbidity, health literacy and health status, African Americans were more likely to report it was absolutely necessary for the physician to refer them to a specialist [AOR 1.55 (95% confidence interval, CI, 1.09-2.21), P = 0.01], order tests [AOR 1.59 (95% CI 1.11-2.27), P = 0.01] and conduct each of the six physical exam components., Conclusions: African American race is associated with greater expectations of the primary care physicians. More research is needed to confirm the differential expectations by race and determine the reasons for the differential expectations.

Objectives: To study relationships between health literacy and multiple satisfaction domains. Health literacy is related to some domains of patient satisfaction such as communication and understanding, but little is known about relationships of health literacy with other satisfaction domains. Moreover, the importance of health literacy in predicting satisfaction compared with other patient sociodemographics is underexplored., Design: Cross-sectional survey., Setting: Primary care waiting areas with a Veterans Administration Medical Center and a university health system., Participants: One thousand five hundred and twenty-eight primary care patients., Main Outcome Measures: A brief demographics questionnaire, the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine, the Veterans Affairs ambulatory care patient satisfaction survey, and an adaptation of the Charlson Comorbidity Index., Results: In unadjusted regression analyses, lower health literacy level was a significant predictor of worse satisfaction in 7 of 10 domains (P < 0.01). When adjusting for patient sociodemographics, predicted relationships remained significant in six of the seven domains (P < 0.05), with each unit change in the 4-stage literacy classification associated with a 3-6 point decrease in dissatisfaction scores (0-100 scale). Health literacy did not predict overall dissatisfaction (P = 0.55)., Conclusions: These results suggest that health literacy, as assessed through a pronunciation exercise that is closely related to more comprehensive measures of literacy, has a consistent, albeit weak relationship with patient satisfaction. Future work is needed to clarify if patients with lower literacy are really receiving different care than those with higher literacy and to pinpoint the sources of their more negative responses.

During meiosis, homologous chromosomes pair and then segregate from each other at the first meiotic division. Homologous centromeres appear to be aligned when chromosomes are paired. The role of centromere alignment in meiotic chromosome segregation was investigated in Saccharomyces cerevisiae diploids that contained one intact copy of chromosome I and one copy bisected into two functional centromere-containing fragments. The centromere on one fragment was aligned with the centromere on the intact chromosome while the centromere on the other fragment was either aligned or misaligned. Fragments containing aligned centromeres segregated efficiently from the intact chromosome, while fragments containing misaligned centromeres segregated much less efficiently from the intact chromosome. Less efficient segregation was correlated with crossing over in the region between the misaligned centromeres. Models that suggest that these crossovers impede proper segregation by preventing either a segregation-promoting chromosome alignment on the meiotic spindle or some physical interaction between homologous centromeres are proposed.

Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), an attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis, is one of the most effective agents in the treatment of superficial bladder cancer. BCG osteomyelitis is an infrequent complication of intravesicular BCG therapy; only five cases of BCG vertebral osteomyelitis have been reported in the literature. Similarly, the infection of an indwelling extravascular device by BCG is rare; there is only one previous report documenting infection associated with an automated implantable cardiac defibrillator. We report a case of BCG osteomyelitis involving a hip arthroplasty that occurred after intravesicular administration of BCG for bladder cancer, and we review the risk factors predisposing to such infections and their treatment.