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Using a nationally representative sample of couples aged 51+ in the United States (N = 1,923 couples), the current study investigated whether both partners' perceptions of relationship support and strain are associated with an individual's self-rated health and functional limitations. The sample had an average age of 67.17 years (SD = 9.0; range 50-97). Actor-Partner Interdependence Models adjusting for couple interdependencies were applied using multilevel models. After accounting for age, education, gender, race, and couple differences in length of marriage, results indicate that individual perceptions of support were significantly associated with higher self-rated health and fewer functional limitations. These individual-level benefits increased if the spouse also perceived positive support and low strain. Finally, the negative association of an individual's perceived support on functional limitations was greater in those with a spouse reporting low levels of perceived strain. Findings are discussed relative to theory on behavioral and psychological pathways between partners' perceptions of support and health. Keywords Social support * Health * Older couples * Marriage, Introduction Social support is one of the most pervasive psychosocial constructs found to be associated with health in adulthood (Berkman et al., 2000; Cohen, 2004; Pinquart & Duberstein, 2010; Uchino [...]

The role for PD-1/PD-L1 and CTLA-4 targeted immunotherapy is well outlined in the treatment of metastatic NSCLC. Increased survival benefit supports the use of these medications and the development of next-generation agents with improved efficacy and favorable side-effect profiles. The prevalence of immunotherapy-associated cardiotoxicity (IAC) has grown significantly over the past two years as awareness of this toxicity class has emerged. High-grade conduction disorders comprise a subset of cardiotoxicities with a high case fatality rate. We presented a case of suspected combination ipilimumab-nivolumab associated 3rd degree heart block. The onset of this event was 16 days after immunotherapy initiation. A literature review has suggested that over 75% of cases of cardiotoxicity are observed within the first 6 weeks. We present findings from an interrogation of the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and provide clinical guidance for the early identification of high-risk patients.

Investigates the role of D2 dopamine receptor in the regulation of ionic conductances in PC-12 cells. Dopamine D2 receptor modulation of potassium current (Ik) in PC-12 cells; Mechanisms of D2-mediated Ik inhibition; Influence of the activation of the D2 receptor on potassium and calcium currents.

Purpose: The Graham Roberts Study was initiated in 2018 and is the first Trials Within Cohorts (TwiCs) study for bladder cancer. Its purpose is to provide an infrastructure for answering a breadth of research questions, including clinical, mechanistic, and supportive care centred questions for bladder cancer patients., Participants: All consented patients are those aged 18 or older, able to provide signed informedconsent and have a diagnosis of new or recurrent bladder cancer. All patients are required to have completed a series of baseline questionnaires. The questionnaires are then sent out every 12 months and include information on demographics and medical history as well as questionnaires to collect information on quality of life, fatigue, depression, overall health, physical activity, and dietary habits. Clinical information such as tumor stage, grade and treatment has also been extracted for each patient., Findings to Date: To date, a total of 125 bladder cancer patients have been consented onto the study with 106 filling in the baseline questionnaire. The cohort is made up of 75% newly diagnosed bladder cancer patients and 66% non-muscle invasive bladder cancer cases. At present, there is 1-year follow-up information for 70 patients, 2-year follow-up for 57 patients, 3-year follow-up for 47 patients and 4-year follow-up for 19 patients., Future Plans: We plan to continue recruiting further patients into the cohort study. Using the data collected within the study, we hope to carry out independent research studies with a focus on quality of life. We are also committed to utilizing the Roberts Study Cohort to set up and commence an intervention. The future studies and trials carried out using the Roberts Cohort have the potential to identify and develop interventions that could improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of bladder cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2024 Russell, Leech, Wylie, Moss, Haire, Enting, Amery, Chatterton, Khan, Thurairaja, Nair, Malde, Smith, Gillett, Josephs, Pintus, Rudman, Hughes, Relton and Van Hemelrijck.)

Background: Invadopodia, actin-rich structures that release metallo-proteases at the interface with extra-cellular matrix, in a punctate manner are thought to be important drivers of tumour invasion. Invadopodia formation has been observed in-vitro and in-vivo in numerous metastatic cell lines derived from multiple tumour types. However, prostate cancer cell lines have not been routinely reported to generate invadopodia and the few instances have always required external stimulation., Methods: In this study, the invasive potential of primary prostate adenocarcinoma cell lines, which have never been fully characterised before, was investigated both in-vitro invadopodia assays and in-vivo zebrafish dissemination assay. Subsequently, circulating tumour cells from prostate cancer patients were isolated and tested in the invadopodia assay., Results: Retention of E-cadherin and N-cadherin expression indicated a transitional state of EMT progression, consistent with the idea of partial EMT that has been frequently observed in aggressive prostate cancer. All cell lines tested were capable of spontaneous invadopodia formation and possess a significant degradative ability in-vitro under basal conditions. These cell lines were invasive in-vivo and produced visible metastasis in the zebrafish dissemination assay. Importantly we have proceeded to demonstrate that circulating tumour cells isolated from prostate cancer patients exhibit invadopodia-like structures and degrade matrix with visible puncta. This work supports a role for invadopodia activity as one of the mechanisms of dissemination employed by prostate cancer cells., Conclusion: The combination of studies presented here provide clear evidence that invadopodia activity can play a role in prostate cancer progression., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: This study aimed to assess the outcome of cancer patients undergoing systemic anti-cancer treatment (SACT) at our centre to help inform future clinical decision-making around SACT during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: Patients receiving at least one episode of SACT for solid tumours at Guy's Cancer Centre between 1 March and 31 May 2020 and the same period in 2019 were included in the study. Data were collected on demographics, tumour type/stage, treatment type (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, biological-targeted) and SARS-CoV2 infection., Results: A total of 2120 patients received SACT in 2020, compared to 2449 in 2019 (13% decrease). From 2019 to 2020, there was an increase in stage IV disease (62% vs. 72%), decrease in chemotherapy (42% vs. 34%), increase in immunotherapy (6% vs. 10%), but similar rates of biologically targeted treatments (37% vs. 38%). There was a significant increase in 1st and 2nd line treatments in 2020 (68% vs. 81%; p < 0.0001) and reduction in 3rd and subsequent lines (26% vs. 15%; p = 0.004) compared to 2019. Of the 2020 cohort, 2% patients developed SARS-CoV2 infections., Conclusions: These real-world data from a tertiary Cancer Centre suggest that despite the challenges faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, SACT was able to be continued without any significant effects on the mortality of solid-tumour patients. There was a low rate (2%) of SARS-CoV-2 infection which is comparable to the 1.4%-point prevalence in our total cancer population.

Introduction: The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic has been highly disruptive for people with cancer. Furthermore, it has been shown that accrual to cancer trials dropped substantially in 2020. Building on findings from a previous pilot survey, the present study used qualitative methods to gain insights into attitudes towards participation in research studies amongst people who have experienced cancer, in the context of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: We interviewed 13 participants from the UK, who were purposively sampled, including a broad sample of cancer types, and a mixture of individuals who have and have not taken part in research previously. Participants underwent semi-structured interviews (median interview duration: 47 min) and were asked open-ended questions about their attitude towards and experiences with COVID-19, and their attitude towards research participation. In addition to this, prompts were used to ask participants about concerns that were highlighted by our previous quantitative work on this topic, such as concerns about being older or having to travel to participate. Interview transcripts were analysed using a framework analysis approach. Results: Our findings suggest that cancer patient decision-making about research participation during an infectious disease pandemic may be a function of a basic cost-benefit analysis, which considers the benefit of taking part, either personally to themselves or to wider society. The benefit may then be weighed by the patient against the risk of being infected, which may be influenced by trust in the relevant clinicians/researchers; familiarity with the study location; provision of detailed information on safety protocols for infectious disease; and, in particular, the availability of safe transport to and from the study location. Discussion: Some cancer patients say that they would be less likely to participate in a research study in the middle of an infectious disease pandemic due to an increased risk to themselves. Patients' perceived risk to themselves from participating may be ameliorated via the provision of certain practical solutions that can be considered at the study protocol design stage, such as safe travel, information, and the use of staff and study sites familiar to the patient., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Fox, Wylie, Haire, Green, Kibaru and Van Hemelrijck.)

Background: Using an updated dataset with more patients and extended follow-up, we further established cancer patient characteristics associated with COVID-19 death., Methods: Data on all cancer patients with a positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) at Guy's Cancer Centre and King's College Hospital between 29 February and 31 July 2020 was used. Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to identify which factors were associated with COVID-19 mortality., Results: Three hundred and six SARS-CoV-2-positive cancer patients were included. Seventy-one had mild/moderate and 29% had severe COVID-19. Seventy-two patients died of COVID-19 (24%), of whom 35 died <7 days. Male sex [hazard ratio (HR): 1.97 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15-3.38)], Asian ethnicity [3.42 (1. 59-7.35)], haematological cancer [2.03 (1.16-3.56)] and a cancer diagnosis for >2-5 years [2.81 (1.41-5.59)] or ≥5 years were associated with an increased mortality. Age >60 years and raised C-reactive protein (CRP) were also associated with COVID-19 death. Haematological cancer, a longer-established cancer diagnosis, dyspnoea at diagnosis and raised CRP were indicative of early COVID-19-related death in cancer patients (<7 days from diagnosis)., Conclusions: Findings further substantiate evidence for increased risk of COVID-19 mortality for male and Asian cancer patients, and those with haematological malignancies or a cancer diagnosis >2 years. These factors should be accounted for when making clinical decisions for cancer patients., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Very few studies investigating COVID-19 in cancer patients have included cancer patients as controls. We aimed to identify factors associated with the risk of testing positive for SARS CoV2 infection in a cohort of cancer patients. We analyzed data from all cancer patients swabbed for COVID-19 between 1 st March and 31 st July 2020 at Guy's Cancer Centre. We conducted logistic regression analyses to identify which factors were associated with a positive COVID-19 test. Results: Of the 2152 patients tested for COVID-19, 190 (9%) tested positive. Male sex, black ethnicity, and hematological cancer type were positively associated with risk of COVID-19 (OR = 1.85, 95%CI:1.37-2.51; OR = 1.93, 95%CI:1.31-2.84; OR = 2.29, 95%CI:1.45-3.62, respectively) as compared to females, white ethnicity, or solid cancer type, respectively. Male, Asian ethnicity, and hematological cancer type were associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 (OR = 3.12, 95%CI:1.58-6.14; OR = 2.97, 95%CI:1.00-8.93; OR = 2.43, 95%CI:1.00-5.90, respectively). This study is one of the first to compare the risk of COVID-19 incidence and severity in cancer patients when including cancer patients as controls. Results from this study have echoed those of previous reports, that patients who are male, of black or Asian ethnicity, or with a hematological malignancy are at an increased risk of COVID-19.

Introduction: The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is having major effects on cancer research, including major reductions in participant accrual to cancer clinical trials. Existing research has indicated that these steep drops in accrual rates to cancer clinical trials may be disproportionately affecting women. We sought to determine if there were gender differences in a dataset collected to examine participants' concerns about taking part in cancer research during the pandemic., Methods: Between 5-19 June 2020, we distributed a fully anonymized survey via social media. We contacted 85 UK cancer patient organizations/charities and asked them to share our questionnaire on their platforms, of which 26 obliged. Patients aged 18 with a cancer diagnosis were eligible to participate and asked about their clinical and demographic characteristics, concerns about research participation given the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety levels measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale, amongst other questions. Anxiety levels and concerns about participating were compared between men and women using univariate and multivariate analyses., Results: 93 individuals, comprising n = 37 women and n = 56 men of various cancer types, provided survey responses. Independent t-tests showed that women reported higher anxiety scores, and concerns about participating in cancer research during COVID-19, than men. Linear regression analyses showed that anxiety scores predicted concerns about research participation in women but not men (p interaction = 0.002)., Conclusions: Cancer patients have concerns about participating in research during the COVID-19 pandemic that range from mild to serious. Furthermore, the relationship between general anxiety and concerns about research participation may be both more relevant and more pronounced in women than in men. Future work should examine the reasons why women are less likely to enrol in cancer trials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the 10 th most common malignancy worldwide and the patient experience is found to be worse than that for patients diagnosed with other cancer types. We aimed to develop a wellbeing intervention to help improve the bladder cancer patient experience by ameliorating their health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL). We followed the 3 phases of the modified Medical Research Council (MRC) Framework for development of complex interventions. Following a systematic review of the literature on mental, sexual, and physical wellbeing, we conducted discussion groups with patients and healthcare professionals on these 3 themes. A consultation phase was then conducted with all relevant stakeholders to co-design a wellbeing intervention as part of a feasibility study. A pragmatic wellbeing feasibility trial was designed based on the hypothesis that a wellbeing program will increase patient awareness and attendance to services available to them and will better support their needs to improve HRQoL. The primary feasibility endpoints are patient attendance to the services offered and changes in HRQoL. The principle of patient centered care has strengthened the commitment to provide a holistic approach to support BC patients. In this study, we developed a wellbeing intervention in collaboration with patients and healthcare professionals to meet an unmet need in terms of the BC patient experience.

Background: Bladder cancer (BC) is the 9th most common cancer worldwide, but little progress has been made in improving patient outcomes over the last 25 years. The King's Health Partners (KHP) BC biobank was established to study unanswered, clinically relevant BC research questions. Donors are recruited from the Urology or Oncology departments of Guy's Hospital (UK) and can be approached for consent at any point during their treatment pathway. At present, patients with bladder cancer are approached to provide their consent to provide blood, urine and bladder tissue. They also give access to medical records and linkage of relevant clinical and pathological data across the course of their disease. Between June 2017 and June 2019, 531 out of 997 BC patients (53.3%) gave consent to donate samples and data to the Biobank. During this period, the Biobank collected fresh frozen tumour samples from 90/178 surgical procedures (of which 73 were biopsies) and had access to fixed, paraffin embedded samples from all patients who gave consent. Blood and urine samples have been collected from 38 patients, all of which were processed into component derivatives within 1 to 2 h of collection. This equates to 193 peripheral blood mononuclear cell vials; 238 plasma vials, 224 serum vials, 414 urine supernatant vials and 104 urine cell pellets. This biobank population is demographically and clinically representative of the KHP catchment area., Conclusion: The King's Health Partners BC Biobank has assembled a rich data and tissue repository which is clinically and demographically representative of the local South East London BC population, making it a valuable resource for future BC research.