1,721,028 research outputs found
Peripherally or centrally inserted central catheters: what is the best vascular access device for cancer patients?
No full textChoosing the appropriate vascular access device is a pivotal step to guarantee vessel health and preservation in cancer patients. The first turning point is the determination of the need for central venous catheters (CVCs) followed by the selection of the CVC that will complete the prescribed treatment while minimizing complications and satisfying patients’ needs and expectations. Peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) have steadily grown over the years as an alternative to centrally inserted central catheters and totally implantable catheters based on several advantages including avoidance of placement-associated mechanical complications, easier transitions from hospital to intermediate care settings and home, but also increase in healthcare expenditure, supportive reimbursement policies, and ability to train existing staff. Notwithstanding PICCs have been perceived for a long time as associated with fewer complications, reduced costs, and higher patients’ satisfaction compared to other CVCs, recent evidence has raised concerns about their safety profile without any benefits for longer-term costs neither for patients’ satisfaction. This commentary offers a comprehensive overview on PICC-related (1) complications, (2) costs, and (3) patients’ satisfaction to help healthcare professionals in the choice of the vascular device during their clinical practice. Based on the most recent literature, we finally suggested that the choice of the CVC should depend on the clinical situation with totally implantable catheters being the preferred device for patients who need intermittent long-term and high-dose chemotherapy, while PICCs may be a better choice for patients who need short-term chemotherapy or continuous short-term supportive therapy
Description of adverse events in publications of clinical trials: Much room for improvement [La descrizione delle tossicità negli studi clinici: Molti aspetti da migliorare]
No full textElapsed time for an unresolved adverse event: systemic anticancer therapy-induced neurotoxicity calls for action
No full textGastrointestinal toxicities from targeted therapies: measurement, duration and impact
No full textPurpose of review Gastrointestinal toxicities deriving from targeted therapies are main issues in the oncologic setting, as they can negatively impair quality of life, reducing patient's adherence to treatment and dose intensity, so ultimately possibly affecting outcome. We reviewed some methodological questions linked to the assessment of this kind of toxicity, in terms of way of measurement, duration of the assessed toxicity and impact on the global treatment program. Recent findings The scale of toxicity assessment may influence the evaluation itself; reporting the adverse events by the physician is generally less accurate than by the patient, and these two modalities should be integrated in the analysis of gastrointestinal toxicities by targeted treatment. Moreover, the duration of the symptoms and the attention to the lower grade toxicities estimation are generally underreported in clinical trials. The factors that may affect treatment's adherence by the patient are discussed, as they are strictly linked to the appearance and intensity of gastrointestinal toxicities. Summary Methodological issues should be considered in designing new trials with targeted therapies and evaluating the way of assessment of adverse events, mainly gastrointestinal
NICSO: Network Italiano Cure di Supporto in Oncologia - Italian Network for Supportive Care in Oncology
No full textHospital as a site of death of cancer patients in Italy: A registry-based analysis and time trends
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Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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