Effectiveness of a telehealth patient education intervention for breast cancer awareness and screening uptake among Afghan refugee women: a cross-sectional survey and feasibility study.

Background: Refugee populations have low levels of cancer awareness, low cancer screening rates, and a high rate of advanced or metastatic cancer at diagnosis. Educational interventions to improve cancer awareness and screening have been successful in other nationality refugee populations but have never been implemented in Afghan refugee populations. We aimed to estimate the level of breast cancer awareness among Afghan refugee women and test the feasibility of a telehealth breast cancer educational intervention to increase breast cancer awareness in this population. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of Afghan refugee women residing in Istanbul, Türkiye who had no personal history of breast cancer and who presented to outpatient primary clinics for care between August 1, 2022, and February 10, 2023 was performed. Participant awareness of breast cancer (BC) was assessed using the validated BC awareness tool, Breast Cancer Awareness Measure (BCAM), during a telehealth encounter. After this baseline assessment, a BC educational intervention was administered to each participant during the telehealth encounter. Six months after the initial assessment and education, a follow-up BCAM was administered via telehealth in order to determine the effectiveness of the education intervention. Findings: One hundred participants were accrued to the study. Median age was 49 years (range: 40-64). All participants had no formal education, were married, and were not employed. Prior to the educational intervention, BC awareness was low; none of the participants were able to identify some common signs/symptoms and risk factors for BC. Prior to the educational intervention, zero participants had ever had a mammogram or seen a physician for a breast-related concern. Six months after the educational intervention, up to 99 percent of participants (99 of 100 participants) were able to correctly identify common signs or symptoms and risk factors for BC. Six months after the educational intervention, all one hundred participants had accepted the offer of a screening mammogram. Interpretation: A telehealth BC education intervention meaningfully increased BC awareness in Afghan refugee women. This increase in BC awareness was associated with a strong increase in completion of BC screening. Further implementation of educational interventions is warranted in order to increase participant awareness and improve screening rates. Funding: Dana Farber Cancer Institute Jay Harris Junior Faculty Research Grant.

Comparison of percutaneous gallbladder aspiration with percutaneous cholecystostomy in acute cholecystostomy patients. Can gall bladder aspiration alone be sufficient?

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to compare the efficacy and complication rates of percutaneous gallbladder aspiration (PA) and percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) in the management of AC and present the experiences of a single third-line center. METHODS: The results of 159 patients with AC who admitted to our hospital between 2015 and 2020, that underwent PA and PC procedures, because they did not respond to conservative treatment and LC could not be performed, were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical and laboratory data before and 3 days after PC and PA procedure, technical success, complications, response to treatment, duration of hospital stay, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results were recorded. RESULTS: Out of 159 patients, 22 (8 men 14 women) underwent PA procedure and 137 (57 men 80 women) underwent PC. No significant difference was detected between the PA and PC groups in terms of clinical recovery (P: 0.532) and duration of hospital stay (P: 0.138) in 72 h. The technical success of both procedures was 100%. While 20 out of 22 patients with PA were having a noticable recovery, only one was treated with twice PA procedures and a complete recovery was observed (4.5%). Complication rates were low in both groups and were statistically insignificant (P: 1.00). CONCLUSION: In this pandemic period, PA and PC procedures are effective, reliable, and successful treatment method that can be applied at the bedside for critical patients with AC who are not compatible with surgery, which are safe for health workers and low-risk minimal invasive procedures for patients. In uncomplicated AC patients, PA should be performed, and if there is no response to treatment, PC should be reserved as a salvage procedure. The PC procedure should be performed in patients with AC who have developed complications and are not suitable for surgery.

The extent of agreement between frozen and paraffin block data from axillary samples in patients with early-stage breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with early-stage breast cancer currently undergo sentinel lymph node dissection to evaluate the axillary region. Frozen tissue blocks are evaluated intra operatively and paraffin-embedded samples are studied postoperatively. We explored whether sentinel lymph node dissection adequately reflected axillary involvement (as revealed by the paraffin blocks) in patients with early-stage breast cancer; we sought to avoid axillary dissection. METHODS: The agreement/non-agreement rates between the results of axillary ultrasonography and biopsy, sentinel lymph node and axillary dissections, and frozen and paraffin block results, were retrospectively analyzed for 200 patients with early-stage breast cancer. The positive predictive values and accuracies were recorded in those who were positive on both ultrasonography and biopsy. The negative predictive values were calculated for doubly negative cases. RESULTS: The frozen and paraffin block results disagreed in 19 (9.5 %) cases and agreed in 181 (90.5 %). The frozen block and dissection results differed in five of 38 patients who underwent axillary dissection (AD) (one patient did not undergo AD); the results were in agreement in 32. Of the 19 block-disagreement cases, 16 were in the non-neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) group and three in the NAC treatment group. Clinically, the negative predictive values of the frozen and paraffin block data were 80 % in patients lacking axillary involvement. CONCLUSION: Paraffin block evaluations only (thus, without frozen block examinations) of early-stage breast cancer lymph nodes seem to be sufficient to guide treatment. Also, a thorough clinical examination (with ultrasonography and axillary biopsy) reduces the dissection rate and the associated functional impairments.

Evaluation of treatment responses among subgroups of breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Breast MRIs are helpful for determining treatment plans, responses, and prospective survival analyses. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we compared the preoperative MRI treatment response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) administration with the postoperative pathological response in breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed data from 108 hospitalized patients receiving NAC between 2020 and 2022. We used MRI to evaluate the treatment response to NAC in patients with locally advanced breast cancers who had not received any prior treatment. We recorded the longest diameter of the primary tumor and the numbers of secondary tumors and axillary lymph nodes. In addition, we examined the correlation between the MRI response rate and pathological specimen results. RESULTS: In our subgroup analyses, we found the best pathological response in patients with luminal B (Ki-67 index >14%) breast cancer and positivity for both hormone receptor and HER-2 markers. After comparing the pathological and radiological treatment responses in tumors and lymph nodes, the sensitivities were 90.3% for the pathological assessment and 42.8% for the radiological assessment, while the accuracies were 84.2% for the pathological assessment and 61.1% for the radiological assessment. CONCLUSION: Using MRI techniques and sequence intervals and examining the histopathological characteristics of tumors may help increase the accuracy of the pathological complete response.

A Rare Cause of Colonic Obstruction: Inflammatory Fibroid Polyp.

Only 5% of all cases of intussusceptions occur in adults. Although it is known to occur frequently due to inflammatory bowel disease, postoperative adhesions, or neoplastic masses, inflammatory fibroid polyps (IFP), which are rare lesions of the gastrointestinal tract, may present this clinical picture. In rare cases of intussusception due to IFP, clinical suspicion should be kept in the foreground and mind in the differential diagnosis. In this article, the purpose was to present the clinical, radiological, and pathological findings and the treatment of obstruction caused by this rare lesion.

Spleen infarct secondary to thrombus in COVID-19-related splenic vein: A case report.

Splanchnic venous thrombosis is a rare type of venous thromboembolism, and its actual incidence is still unknown. Splenic infarction develops due to splenic vein (SV) thrombosis. Patients with COVID-19 may be exposed to a risk of thrombotic events, and the system affected at the highest level by coagulopathy is the respiratory system. The case presented here is splenic infarction that developed because of SV thrombosis, which is a rare form of venous thromboembolism.

A novel survival algorithm in COVID-19 intensive care patients: the classification and regression tree (CRT) method.

BACKGROUND/AIM: The present study aimed to create a decision tree for the identification of clinical, laboratory and radiological data of individuals with COVID-19 diagnosis or suspicion of Covid-19 in the Intensive Care Units of a Training and Research Hospital of the Ministry of Health on the European side of the city of Istanbul. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study, which had a retrospective and sectional design, covered all the 97 patients treated with Covid-19 diagnosis or suspicion of COVID-19 in the intensive care unit between 12 March and 30 April 2020. In all cases who had symptoms admitted to the COVID-19 clinic, nasal swab samples were taken and thoracic CT was performed when considered necessary by the physician, radiological findings were interpreted, clinical and laboratory data were included to create the decision tree. RESULTS: A total of 61 (21 women, 40 men) of the cases included in the study died, and 36 were discharged with a cure from the intensive care process. By using the decision tree algorithm created in this study, dead cases will be predicted at a rate of 95%, and those who survive will be predicted at a rate of 81%. The overall accuracy rate of the model was found at 90%. CONCLUSIONS: There were no differences in terms of gender between dead and live patients. Those who died were older, had lower MON, MPV, and had higher D-Dimer values than those who survived.

A Case of Ruptured Pulmonary Hydatid Cyst of the Liver and Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND: Hydatid cyst is an endemic disease frequently localized to the liver. It is frequently observed in Southeast Europe, Middle East, and Turkey. Although the cyst rupture can occur spontaneously, it can also occur upon albendazole treatment. Its surgical treatment includes cystotomy, capitonnage, and wedge resection. MATERIAL-METHOD: A 56-year-old male immigrant was admitted with fever, pain, and cough. Albendazole treatment was initiated and elective surgery was planned. Upon his admission to emergency service, he was diagnosed with pneumonia, and a spontaneous cyst rupture was detected. RESULT: Thoracotomy and cystotomy were performed. Bile leakage aspiration and lung wedge resection were also performed. CONCLUSION: Different surgical methods are used in the treatment of hydatid cysts depending on the localization and complications. Follow-up with antihelminthic drugs such as albendazole and mebendazole is recommended in medical treatment.

Surgical Approach to Anorectal Melanoma with PET-CT Staging: A Case Report.

Rectal hemorrhage should be evaluated within a wide spectrum ranging from benign diseases to a malignant process. Especially, the melanomas of rectum are detected at an advanced stage when diagnosed since the present symptoms of rectal melanomas are similar. The question of what will be the surgical approach with MR, CT, and PET-CT imaging methods performed after histopathological diagnosis still conserves its topicality. PET-CT is a good imaging method for determination of distant metastasis and lymphatic involvement. In the present case, a patient with early-stage rectal melanoma was treated with APR. No relapse/metastasis was detected during the 18-month follow-up. The aggressive course of the disease and its low response rates to medical treatments may cause the surgical approaches to be more extensive.