Publications

BACKGROUND

The growing rates of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and evidence that Latinas may underuse breast-conserving surgery (BCS) compared with white women highlight the need to better understand how treatment decisions are made in this understudied group. To help address this gap, this study compared surgery and radiation treatment decision making among white and Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Latina women with DCIS recruited from eight population-based cancer registries from 35 California counties.

METHODS

Women aged ≥18 who self-identified as Latina or non-Latina white diagnosed with DCIS between 2002 and 2005 were selected from eight California Cancer Registry (CCR) regions and surveyed about their DCIS treatment decision making by telephone approximately 24 months after diagnosis. Survey data were merged with CCR hospital-based records to obtain tumor and treatment data.

RESULTS

Mean age was 57 years. Multivariate analysis indicated no differences by ethnicity or language in the receipt of mastectomy vs. BCS after controlling demographic, health, and personal preferences. English-speaking Latinas were more likely to receive radiation than their Spanish-speaking or white counterparts, controlling for demographic and other factors. Among women receiving BCS, physician recommendation was the strongest predictor of receipt of radiation.

CONCLUSIONS

Ethnic disparities in surgical treatment choices after breast cancer diagnosis were not seen in this cohort of women diagnosed with DCIS. Physicians play an essential role in patients' treatment choices for DCIS, particularly for adjuvant radiation.

RATIONALE

The 6-minute-walk test (6MWT) is a practical and clinically meaningful measure of exercise tolerance with favorable performance characteristics in various cardiac and pulmonary diseases. Performance characteristics in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) have not been systematically evaluated.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the reliability, validity, and responsiveness of the 6MWT and estimate the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) in patients with IPF.

METHODS

The study population included all subjects completing a 6MWT in a clinical trial evaluating interferon gamma-1b (n = 822). Six-minute walk distance (6MWD) and other parameters were measured at baseline and at 24-week intervals using a standardized protocol. Parametric and distribution-independent correlation coefficients were used to assess the strength of the relationships between 6MWD and measures of pulmonary function, dyspnea, and health-related quality of life. Both distribution-based and anchor-based methods were used to estimate the MCID.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Comparison of two proximal measures of 6MWD (mean interval, 24 d) demonstrated good reliability (coefficient = 0.83; P < 0.001). 6MWD was weakly correlated with measures of physiologic function and health-related quality of life; however, values were consistently and significantly lower for patients with the poorest functional status, suggesting good construct validity. Importantly, change in 6MWD was highly predictive of mortality; a 24-week decline of greater than 50 m was associated with a fourfold increase in risk of death at 1 year (hazard ratio, 4.27; 95% confidence interval, 2.57- 7.10; P < 0.001). The estimated MCID was 24-45 m.

CONCLUSIONS

The 6MWT is a reliable, valid, and responsive measure of disease status and a valid endpoint for clinical trials in IPF.

OBJECTIVE

Leptin is an adipokine with both protective and harmful effects on the cardiovascular (CV) system. Prior studies evaluating the association between leptin and CV outcomes have yielded conflicting results. Thus, we sought to investigate the relationship between leptin and CV events and mortality in patients with chronic stable coronary artery disease (CAD).

METHODS

We performed a prospective cohort study of 981 outpatients with stable CAD. Leptin levels were measured in fasting venous samples at baseline. We used proportional hazards models to evaluate the association of baseline leptin with subsequent CV events (myocardial infarction, stroke, transient ischemic attack) and death.

RESULTS

During a mean follow-up of 6.2±2.1 years, there were 304 deaths, 112 myocardial infarctions, and 52 strokes/TIAs. In models adjusted for age, sex, and race, low leptin was associated with a 30% increased risk of the combined outcome (HR 1.30, CI 1.05-1.59, p=0.01). After further adjustment for obesity, traditional CV risk factors and biomarkers, low leptin remained associated with a 37% increased risk of events (HR 1.37, CI 1.06-1.76, p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

Low leptin is associated with increased CV events and mortality in patients with stable coronary artery disease. This association is independent of known factors affecting leptin levels, including gender and obesity.

BACKGROUND

Network analysis techniques allow a more accurate reflection of underlying systems biology to be realized than traditional unidimensional molecular biology approaches. Using gene coexpression network analysis, we define the gene expression network topology of cardiac hypertrophy and failure and the extent of recapitulation of fetal gene expression programs in failing and hypertrophied adult myocardium.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We assembled all myocardial transcript data in the Gene Expression Omnibus (n=1617). Because hierarchical analysis revealed species had primacy over disease clustering, we focused this analysis on the most complete (murine) dataset (n=478). Using gene coexpression network analysis, we derived functional modules, regulatory mediators, and higher-order topological relationships between genes and identified 50 gene coexpression modules in developing myocardium that were not present in normal adult tissue. We found that known gene expression markers of myocardial adaptation were members of upregulated modules but not hub genes. We identified ZIC2 as a novel transcription factor associated with coexpression modules common to developing and failing myocardium. Of 50 fetal gene coexpression modules, 3 (6%) were reproduced in hypertrophied myocardium and 7 (14%) were reproduced in failing myocardium. One fetal module was common to both failing and hypertrophied myocardium.

CONCLUSIONS

Network modeling allows systems analysis of cardiovascular development and disease. Although we did not find evidence for a global coordinated program of fetal gene expression in adult myocardial adaptation, our analysis revealed specific gene expression modules active during both development and disease and specific candidates for their regulation.

The aim of this study is to examine how physicians use clinical practice guidelines that call for routine HIV screening in a general adolescent medicine clinic and to determine how adolescent patients respond to routine screening. Physicians offered screening to 116 of 217 patients (53%) aged 13-21 who completed a survey. Physicians' offers conformed to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines with 73% of patients because some patients not offered a test had been screened within the last year. Physicians were three times more likely (OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.3-6.8) to offer HIV screening to sexually active adolescents than to adolescents who reported no sexual history. Adolescent medicine physicians and their patients endorse the idea of routine screening as embodied in the latest CDC recommendations, but adolescents with no sexual history are less likely than other adolescents to accept screening when it is offered and to support a clinic policy of routine screening. Both physicians and their adolescent patients continue to test based on risk assessments.