Recent Articles
Long-term breast cancer survivors often continue to experience physical and psychological sequelae, despite being cancer-free; these challenges can negatively impact their quality of life and self-efficacy. Mobile health interventions (mHealth) constitute a promising strategy for providing personalized support. However, the feasibility and acceptability of these tools in long-term breast cancer survivors has not yet been sufficiently explored.
The growing importance of real-world data (RWD) as a source of evidence for drug effects has led to increased interest in clinical research utilizing secondary use data from electronic medical record systems. Although immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies have advanced lung cancer treatment, managing complications such as interstitial lung disease (ILD) remains challenging. Early detection and prevention of ILD are crucial for improving patient prognosis and quality of life; however, predictive biomarkers have yet to be established. Therefore, methods to identify ILD risk factors and enable early detection using RWD are needed.
Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is frequently reported during cancer treatment, with 35% of patients experiencing cognitive issues even after treatment completion. Commonly reported impairments include difficulties with memory, attention, executive function, and processing speed, which often reduce daily functioning and quality of life (QoL). Despite its prevalence, CRCI remains underresearched across various cancer types, limiting understanding of the patient experience.
Although its receipt has declined since the pandemic, telehealth remains a popular care delivery mode across the cancer care continuum. A greater understanding of telehealth in the cancer care context is vital, especially because the benefits and barriers of telehealth, as with other digital health tools, may vary across different population groups and geographic contexts.
Lung cancer (LC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and has a substantial impact on patients’ quality of life (QoL) and psychological well-being, due to complex physical, emotional, and social challenges. Addressing these needs is critical; yet, many patients go unsupported. eHealth (using information and communication technology to deliver health-related services) offers a scalable way to provide timely, personalized care for people living with LC.
Over the past decade, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) have become increasingly relevant in healthcare data standardization. However, the complex structure of FHIR makes cohort analytics with many-to-many relations extremely time-consuming, and, in many cases, impossible. To support exploratory cohort building and data visualization in oncology, especially for non-technical users, we developed the DermaDashboard, an interactive dashboard built on top of a relational FHIR-compliant PostgreSQL database. Relevant oncology data was pre-aggregated with a materialized view, and the subsequent visualization layer was implemented using an open-source visualization tool, enabling clinicians to filter and analyze data without requiring familiarity with FHIR or SQL. The database encompassed data from 3,949 melanoma patients and included 82,783 health records. Core FHIR resources were Patient, DiagnosticReport, and QuestionnaireResponse, with 54 mapped attributes spanning demographics, stagings, mutations, and treatments. The resulting dashboard allowed filtering across 29 variables to construct subcohorts and generate aggregation analyses. This implementation shows how open interoperability data standards, such as FHIR, can be used in the development of modular, user-friendly clinical dashboards for cohort analysis, and the architecture demonstrates a feasible path toward democratizing access to structured healthcare data.
NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers (NCI-CCs) throughout the U.S. are mandated to translate state-of-the-art cancer research to communities and enhance clinical care for patients within their catchment areas. NCI-CCs play a vital role in national cancer initiatives focused on optimizing cancer care via personalized medicine in which improved risk assessment, screening, and genetic testing are foundational. In this era of targeted personalized care, though genetics has been incorporated into cancer centers, it is unknown how these innovations are being communicated to the public and communities served on cancer center online websites. There is particularly limited knowledge surrounding how NCI-CCs publicly communicate about their efforts to integrate patient-reported experiences with genomics to fulfill their overall mission and reduce the cancer burden of their catchment areas.
Survivors of metastatic lung cancer (MLC) face a heightened risk of developing second primary cancers (SPCs), which significantly impact long-term outcomes. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer treatment, but their potential role in reducing SPC risk remains underexplored. This study investigates the association between ICI treatment and the incidence of SPCs in a large, real-world cohort of MLC patients.
Asian American patients have reported unique needs and barriers related to cancer care. While patient navigation can facilitate care coordination and help address barriers to care, in-person navigation is time and resource intensive. Virtual patient navigation and online supportive care tools can extend the benefits of patient navigation to more patients, especially those with non-English language needs.
