Accelerating the development of innovative cellular therapy products for the treatment of cancer.

The field of cell therapy is rapidly emerging as a priority area for oncology research and drug development. Currently, two chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and other agencies worldwide for two types of hematologic cancers. To facilitate the development of these therapies for patients with life-threatening cancers with limited or no therapeutic options, science- and risk-based approaches will be critical to mitigating and balancing any potential risk associated with either early clinical research or more flexible manufacturing paradigms. Friends of Cancer Research and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy convened an expert group of stakeholders to develop specific strategies and proposals for regulatory opportunities to accelerate the development of cell therapies as promising new therapeutics. This meeting took place in Washington, DC on May 17, 2019. As academia and industry expand research efforts and cellular product development pipelines, this report summarizes opportunities to accelerate entry into the clinic for exploratory studies and optimization of cell products through manufacturing improvements for these promising new therapies.

Preference for analgesic treatment for cancer pain among African Americans.

Over the past decade, there has been a surge of literature related to disparities in pain treatment between minority and non-minority patients. Conspicuously lacking from this body of literature is an effort to investigate the patient-level factors that might account for undertreatment of pain among minorities. The present qualitative descriptive study was designed to gain a preliminary understanding of the preference for analgesic treatment for cancer pain among African Americans and the factors shaping these preferences. The sample (n=35) was recruited from three outpatient oncology clinics in the Mid-Atlantic region. Inclusion was based on self-identified African Americans, >18 years of age, diagnosed with solid tumors, with self-reported cancer pain of at least one month, and no history of major surgery in the past three months. The data were gathered using demographics, the Brief Pain Inventory-Long Form, and in-depth semistructured interviews. Qualitative findings revealed that despite having overt access to pain medications, considerable intra-ethnic heterogeneity existed in the preference for analgesia among this group of African Americans. The subjective preference for analgesics for cancer pain was tied to a number of covert factors such as meaning of cancer pain treatment, past experience with pain relief and analgesic side effects, fears of dependency and tolerance, and past experience with providers and the health system. These factors should be the focus of future inquiry.

Differentiating nursing leadership and management competencies.

As the foundation of evaluating content for nursing leadership and administration courses, leadership and management competencies were identified from a literature review of 140 articles published between 2000-2004. Similarities and differences among the competencies were assessed. A large intersection of common competencies was discovered, indicating a lack of discrimination between leadership and management competencies. Arguably, this fusion ignores the different purposes served by leadership and management. Alternately, the convergence of leadership and management competencies might reflect that traditional distinctions have narrowed. Nevertheless, ambiguity persists regarding essential leadership and management competencies and the way they are reflected in nursing curricula. If concerns about the work environment are to be remedied for patients and staff, nurse educators are urged to act quickly to identify requisite competencies and better align course content with them. This will better prepare nurse administrators to succeed in their arduous work.

Factors associated with distress in urban residential fire survivors.

PURPOSE: To identify factors associated with recovery in a sample of urban residential fire survivors. DESIGN AND METHODS: 440 survivors, of residential fires were interviewed at approximately 3, 6, and 13 months after the fire to measure psychological distress. A set of factors was identified that correlated with survivors' ability to recover from the fire event. Potential predictors of increased distress were identified. Hypotheses were that participants who were lower in socioeconomic status, who were minority members, who had less social support, who engaged in attributional thinking, and had greater concurrent life stresses would have greater psychological distress in response to a residential fire and would be less able to recover from the fire event. FINDINGS: Distress after fire was high at 3 months and decreased for the majority of participants, although one-third of survivors had higher distress at 13 months than at 3 months. Loss of control and attributional variables had the strongest influence on psychological distress over time. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are consistent with stress-response tendencies expected after a stressful event. A set of predictor variables was identified to help clinicians target survivors at high risk for psychological distress after a residential fire.