Using Patients' Social Network to Improve Compliance to Outpatient Screening Colonoscopy Appointments Among Blacks: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVES: Patient navigation improves colorectal cancer screening among underserved populations, but limited resources preclude widespread adoption in minority-serving institutions. We evaluated whether a patient's self-selected social contact person can effectively facilitate outpatient screening colonoscopy. METHODS: From September 2014 to March 2017 in an urban tertiary center, 399 black participants scheduled for outpatient screening colonoscopy self-selected a social contact person to be a facilitator and provided the person's phone number. Of these, 201 participants (50.4%) were randomly assigned to the intervention arm for their social contact persons to be engaged by phone. The study was explained to the social contact person with details about colonoscopy screening and bowel preparation process. The social contacts were asked to assist the participants, provide support, and encourage compliance with the procedures. The social contact person was not contacted in the usual care arm, n = 198 (49.6%). We evaluated attendance to the scheduled outpatient colonoscopy and adequacy of bowel preparation. Analysis was performed by intention to treat. RESULTS: The social contact person was reached and agreed to be involved for 130 of the 201 participants (64.7%). No differences were found in the proportion of participants who underwent screening colonoscopy (77.3% vs 77.2%; relative risk = 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.91-1.12), but there was a modest increase in the proportion with adequate bowel preparation with social contact involvement (89.1% vs 80.9%; relative risk = 1.10; 95% confidence interval: 1.00-1.21). DISCUSSION: Engaging a patient's social network to serve in the role of a patient navigator did not improve compliance to outpatient screening colonoscopy but modestly improved the adequacy of bowel preparation.

Esophageal carcinoma in African Americans: a five-decade experience.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal cancer accounts for a considerable proportion of carcinomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract in African Americans. Our aim was to describe the epidemiology of esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) among African Americans in the last five decades. METHODS: A total of 601 records of patients with documented esophageal cancer between 1959 and 2007 at Howard University Hospital were reviewed. Demographic characteristics, risk factors, clinical stage and histological findings were reviewed. The change in prevalence of the disease and the interaction between main risk factors with tumor stage of the patients were assessed over the years of this study. RESULT: A total of 552 patients (91.8%) had ESCC while 49 patients (8.2%) had EA. The mean age at diagnosis was 60.1 and 60.6 years for ESCC and EA, respectively (P = 0.8). The peak incidence was in the 1980-1989 decade. Out of 136 ESCC patients with TNM staging information, 130 (95.6%) were diagnosed in stage 2 and above. The majority (73%) of the ESCC were in the mid- and upper third of the esophagus and associated with smoking and alcohol exposure. The majority (81%) of the EA were in the mid- and lower third. The most common presenting symptoms were dysphagia (77.7%), and weight loss (31.9%). CONCLUSION: ESCC is the predominant esophageal cancer in African Americans and diagnosed in late stages, and its diagnosis in our institution has decreased since 1990. A combination of genetic factors, environmental influences (e.g., those related to diet), and the deleterious changes associated with smoking and alcohol consumption, and differences in tumor histology, are the obvious parameters that should be the focus of future studies, and early diagnosis at an earlier stage should be considered among blacks.

A Comprehensive Analysis of COVID-19 Impact in Latin America.

Background: Latin America has now become the epicenter of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic, a profound burden of SARS-COV-2 infection has been reported in Latin America. In the present study, we aim to determine the profiles that are associated with this disease in Latin America. We analyzed symptoms, morbidities and gastrointestinal (GI) manifestations by country. Methods: We analyzed data from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients evaluated at healthcare centers and hospitals of 8 Latin American countries including Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia between March 1 and July 30, 2020. These countries consist of a total population that exceeds 519 million. Demographics, comorbidities and clinical symptoms were collected. Statistical descriptive analysis and correlation analyses of symptoms, comorbidities and lethality were performed. Results: A total of 728,282 patients tested positive for COVID-19 across all the 8 Latin American countries. Of these, 52.6% were female. The average age was 48.4 years. Peru had the oldest cohort with 56.8 years old and highest rate of females (56.8%) while Chile had the youngest cohort (39 years old). Venezuela had the highest male prevalence (56.7%). Most common symptoms were cough with 60.1% (Bolivia had the highest rate 78%), fatigue/tiredness with 52.0%, sore throat with 50.3%, and fever with 44.2%. Bolivia had fever as the top symptom (83.3%). GI symptoms including diarrhea (highest in Mexico with 22.9%), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain were not associated with higher mortality.Hypertension was among the top (12.1%) comorbidities followed by diabetes with 8.3% and obesity 4.5%. In multivariable analyses, the leading and significant comorbidities were hypertension (r=0.83, p=0.02), diabetes (r=0.91, p=0.01), and obesity (r=0.86, p=0.03). Asthma (r=0.37, p=0.54) and increasing age (0.13 p=0.81) were not independently associated with higher mortality. Lethality was highest in Mexico (16.6%) and lowest in Venezuela (0.9%) among the analyzed cohorts. Conclusion: Nearly, 10.5%-53% of patients with COVID-19 have GI manifestations. Differential clinical symptoms were associated with COVID-19 in Latin America countries. Metabolic syndrome components were the main comorbidities associated with poor outcome. Country-specific management and prevention plans are needed. Country-specific management and prevention plans can be established from this meta-analysis.

Mitochondrial DNA mutations in preneoplastic lesions of the gastrointestinal tract: a biomarker for the early detection of cancer.

BACKGROUND: Somatic mutations of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are common in many human cancers. We have described an oligonucleotide microarray ("MitoChip") for rapid sequencing of the entire mitochondrial genome (Zhou et al, J Mol Diagn 2006), facilitating the analysis of mtDNA mutations in preneoplastic lesions. We examined 14 precancerous lesions, including seven Barrett esophagus biopsies, with or without associated dysplasia; four colorectal adenomas; and three inflammatory colitis-associated dysplasia specimens. In all cases, matched normal tissues from the corresponding site were obtained as germline control. MitoChip analysis was performed on DNA obtained from cryostat-embedded specimens. RESULTS: A total of 513,639 bases of mtDNA were sequenced in the 14 samples, with 490,224 bases (95.4%) bases assigned by the automated genotyping software. All preneoplastic lesions examined demonstrated at least one somatic mtDNA sequence alteration. Of the 100 somatic mtDNA alterations observed in the 14 cases, 27 were non-synonymous coding region mutations (i.e., resulting in an amino acid change), 36 were synonymous, and 37 involved non-coding mtDNA. Overall, somatic alterations most commonly involved the COI, ND4 and ND5 genes. Notably, somatic mtDNA alterations were observed in preneoplastic lesions of the gastrointestinal tract even in the absence of histopathologic evidence of dysplasia, suggesting that the mitochondrial genome is susceptible at the earliest stages of multistep cancer progression. CONCLUSION: Our findings further substantiate the rationale for exploring the mitochondrial genome as a biomarker for the early diagnosis of cancer, and confirm the utility of a high-throughput array-based platform for this purpose from a clinical applicability standpoint.