What can surgeons do to prevent job leave soon after cancer diagnosis? A brief report on colorectal cancer survivors in Japan.

PURPOSE: Colorectal cancer is one of the most diagnosed cancers in Japan and the number of cancer survivors has increased. Work-related issues of cancer survivors have been investigated in relation to occupational health, and sufficient evidence in clinical practice is needed to support this. This study aimed to obtain the relevant information, intending to support the employment of patients with colorectal cancer for clinical settings. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, multicenter cohort study, which included patients who underwent surgery with clinical stage I-III colorectal cancer. An electronic survey was used at the time of hospital admission to collect the patients' occupational information, including job resignation soon after cancer diagnosis. A cross-sectional analysis was performed to evaluate the patients' employment situations. RESULTS: Of 129 eligible patients, 46 (36%) were female. Thirty-nine (30%) were self-employed and 72 (56%) worked at small-sized workplaces, which are not obliged to have occupational physicians. Most patients (89%) expressed their desire to return to work, but eight patients (6%) left their jobs soon after being diagnosed with colorectal cancer before undergoing surgery for several reasons stemming from worries about future treatment and its consequences. Multivariable analyses indicated that nonregular employees and the self-employed might be at a disadvantage in keeping their job at diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Surgeons should address work-related issues for survivorship, which begins at cancer diagnosis and, when available, collaborate with occupational physicians while being mindful that patients working at smaller companies do not have immediate access to occupational physicians.

Auto bias control and bias hold circuit for IQ-modulator in flexible optical QAM transmitter with Nyquist filtering.

An Auto Bias Control (ABC) technique for the IQ-modulator of a flexible optical QAM transmitter is described. This technique can support various optical QAM signal formats with Nyquist filtering and electronic dispersion pre-compensation. 16, 32 and 64-QAM signals (21 Gbaud) are successfully generated, and all bias voltages are held to their optimum value even when signal format is changed.

409-Tb/s + 409-Tb/s crosstalk suppressed bidirectional MCF transmission over 450 km using propagation-direction interleaving.

We demonstrate bidirectional transmission over 450 km of newly-developed dual-ring structured 12-core fiber with large effective area and low crosstalk. Inter-core crosstalk is suppressed by employing propagation-direction interleaving, and 409-Tb/s capacities are achieved for both directions.

100-Gbit/s PDM-QPSK coherent receiver with wide dynamic range and excellent common-mode rejection ratio.

We report the design and fabrication of a hybrid-integration-type coherent receiver. We optimize the receiver building blocks, and achieve a -25-dB common-mode rejection ratio and a 20-dB signal input power dynamic range.

Auto Bias Control technique for optical 16-QAM transmitter with asymmetric bias dithering.

ABC (Auto Bias Control) technique for QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) transmitter is demonstrated. 16-QAM (10G baud) is generated and controlled using a single IQ modulator and asymmetric bias dithering technique. Measured penalty is 0.3 dB.