Search

The colorectal cancer screening programme was introduced gradually from 2014. Since 2019, all people aged 55 to 75 have been invited to participate once every two years. In 2021, more than 1.6 million people took part in the screening programme, and colorectal cancer was detected in 2,700 participants, with an early stage of colorectal cancer being detected in 17,000 participants. At this stage, the screening programme has been running for too short a time to be able to scientifically demonstrate that it leads to less mortality from colorectal cancer; however, there are clear indications in that direction. Under the current circumstances, the benefits (prevention of colorectal cancer and associated mortality) outweigh the risks of the screening programme (screening test that detects no abnormalities but is taxing and causes concern, and cases of cancer that are missed). The Council therefore recommends that no modifications be made to the regular programme at this time.The Council does, however, recommend conducting a regional pilot population screening programme with one-off screening of people around 50 years of age. This will allow a review of to what extent such a programme would provide health benefits and whether the benefits would outweigh the risks. Based on the results, a decision can be made as to whether the age limit of the programme should be lowered. One promising development that may improve the screening programme in the long term is customised screening. As such, the Council recommends that this be reviewed. In addition, the Council recommends continuing investment in increasing participation rates.

The colorectal cancer screening programme was introduced gradually from 2014. Since 2019, all people aged 55 to 75 have been invited to participate once every two years. In 2021, more than 1.6 million people took part in the screening programme, and colorectal cancer was detected in 2,700 participants, with an early stage of colorectal cancer being detected in 17,000 participants. At this stage, the screening programme has been running for too short a time to be able to scientifically demonstrate that it leads to less mortality from colorectal cancer; however, there are clear indications in that direction. Under the current circumstances, the benefits (prevention of colorectal cancer and associated mortality) outweigh the risks of the screening programme (screening test that detects no abnormalities but is taxing and causes concern, and cases of cancer that are missed). The Council therefore recommends that no modifications be made to the regular programme at this time. The Council does, however, recommend conducting a regional pilot population screening programme with one-off screening of people around 50 years of age. This will allow a review of to what extent such a programme would provide health benefits and whether the benefits would outweigh the risks. Based on the results, a decision can be made as to whether the age limit of the programme should be lowered. One promising development that may improve the screening programme in the long term is customised screening. As such, the Council recommends that this be reviewed. In addition, the Council recommends continuing investment in increasing participation rates.

In this study, we describe a protocol to assess relations between organization of the primary motor cortex of several trunk muscles with motor and sensory tests during the clinical course of low back pain. We used a cross-sectional and five-week longitudinal case-control design.

Due to the prevalence of skin cancer, the State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport requested that the Health Council of the Netherlands review whether introducing a screening programme for skin cancer would be expedient. A key requirement underpinning the introduction of a screening programme is that its usefulness has been established and that its benefits outweigh any disadvantages, which, the Council has determined, is not the case for skin cancer. There is no scientific evidence that a programme of this type would be beneficial. Any added value offered by a screening programme is expected to be low, given that many cases are already detected at an early stage and the mortality rate is low.Care for people with a suspicious lesion on their skin usually starts at the GP, who carries out a risk assessment and will either treat the lesion themselves or refer the patient to a dermatologist. People suspected to have a familial or hereditary predisposition to melanoma are offered a periodic skin examination and genetic testing. Survival rates for skin cancer are high with the current detection and treatment strategies for suspicious lesions.Excessive exposure to sunlight and sunburn in combination with a light skin tone are the principal risk factors for skin cancer. Behaviour can therefore significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer (e.g. not staying in the sun for long periods of time, covering the skin and using a high factor sun cream). The Steering Committee for Skin Cancer Care in the Netherlands (Stuurgroep Huidkankerzorg Nederland) and RIVM are working on more intensive information provision. The Health Council of the Netherlands emphasises the importance of behavioural change and information provision. In the future, apps for suspicious skin lesions may play a role in the detection of skin cancer, however, this requires more development and research.

Children with a low level of neuromotor fitness are less skilled to participate in sports activities. Moreover, lower levels of neuromotor fitness are related to adiposity, lower cardiovascular health, and poor self-esteem in children. The aim of this paper was to determine neuromotor fitness in 10–12-year-old Dutch children over a 10-year period. Test scores measured in 2015/2017 (N = 533 in 2015, N = 941 in 2017) were compared with scores of same-aged children measured in 2006 (N = 1986). Neuromotor fitness was assessed using theMOPER fitness test battery, including speed and agility, strength, flexibility, and coordination and upper-limb speed. Data were analyzed using multilevellinear regression models and tobit regression analyses in case of skewed distributions with an excess of zeros. Analyses were stratified by age and gender, and adjusted for level of urbanization. Children in 2015/2017 performed significantly worse on speed and agility (b = 0.8 to 1.1 s), significantly better on coordination/upper-limb speed (b = −1.0 to −0.6 s), and–except for 12-year-old girls–significantly worse on flexibility vs. childrenin 2006 (b = −3.4 to −1.8 cm). Additionally, upper-body strength was significantly worse among 10-year olds (b = −3.2 to −2.5 s) while leg strength was significantly worse among 11-year-olds in 2015/2017 vs. 2006 (b = −1.8 to −1.7 cm). Trunk strength was worse among 11- and 12-year old boys (b = 1.1 to 1.2 s). In line with a previously observed downward trend in neuromotor fitness among children (1980–2006), we found worse scores on speed and agility, and flexibility in 2015/2017 vs. 2006, stressing the need for interventions aimed at improving neuromotor fitness in order to promote physical activity and future health.

Purpose: Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a highly aggressive pediatric brain tumor, for which no effective therapeutic options currently exist. We here determined the potential of inhibition of the maternal embryonic leucine zipper kinase (MELK) for the treatment of DIPG.Experimental Design: We evaluated the antitumor efficacy of the small-molecule MELK inhibitor OTSSP167 in vitro in patient-derived DIPG cultures, and identified the mechanism of action of MELK inhibition in DIPG by RNA sequencing of treated cells. In addition, we determined the blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration of OTSSP167 and evaluated its translational potential by treating mice bearing patient-derived DIPG xenografts.Results: This study shows that MELK is highly expressed in DIPG cells, both in patient samples and in relevant in vitro and in vivo models, and that treatment with OTSSP167 strongly decreases proliferation of patient-derived DIPG cultures. Inhibition of MELK in DIPG cells functions through reducing inhibitory phosphorylation of PPAR?, resulting in an increase in nuclear translocation and consequent transcriptional activity. Brain pharmacokinetic analyses show that OTSSP167 is a strong substrate for both MDR1 and BCRP, limiting its BBB penetration. Nonetheless, treatment of Mdr1a/b;Bcrp1 knockout mice carrying patient-derived DIPG xenografts with OTSSP167 decreased tumor growth, induced remissions, and resulted in improved survival.Conclusions: We show a strong preclinical effect of the kinase inhibitor OTSSP167 in the treatment of DIPG and identify the MELK-PPAR? signaling axis as a putative therapeutic target in this disease. Clin Cancer Res; 24(22); 5645-57. ©2018 AACR.

Low cardiorespiratory fitness and inactivity are strong health predictors associated with excessive fatness. The objective of this study was to determine the associations between physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness and body fatness in South African adolescents. A cross-sectional study was performed with a subsample of 149 school-going adolescents (58 boys and 91 girls) with a mean age of 15.7 ± 0.8 years whom were participating in the Physical Activity and Health Longitudinal Study (PAHLS). Body mass, height, and skinfolds were assessed according to the standards of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). Subsequently, body mass index (BMI) and percentage of body fat (%BF) were calculated. Cardiorespiratory fitness was derived from predicted VO2max, and PA assessed by combined heart rate and accelerometry (ActiHeart®, CamNTech). Physical activity was classified according to activity categories. Out of 149 participants, 100 (67.1%) had normal body mass; 26 (17.5%) were underweight and 23 (15.4%) were overweight. Seventeen (18.7%) girls and six (10%) boys were overweight or obese. The prevalence of underweight in boys was 29.3% and 9.9% in girls. A total of 102 (68.5%) participants were sedentary and 47 (31.5%) were active. The overweight group was significantly (p

The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and educational achievements (EA) of rural South African children. The data come from a sample of 238 children (118 boys and 120 girls) from the ongoing Ellisras Longitudinal Study. A questionnaire was used to gather information on six SES measures: Availability of TV and radio at home; type of dwelling; educational level of the father; number of people sharing a bedroom; cooking mode used; and household income. EA was measured using the Educational Achievement Tests. In this sample, with a very low average SES, no strong relationships were found between SES and EA. The general absence of significant relationships between SES and EA may be due to difficulties in accurately and adequately measuring SES and EA, and the little variations in SES. The ‘type of dwelling' and ‘cooking mode' however, was positively associated with EA. Based on this result, improvement of housing and cooking facilities may lead to improvement in the educational achievement of children in low SES rural communities. Keywords: socio-economic status, educational achievements, rural South African children African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance Vol. 12 (3) 2006: 298-309