Recent Publications by CFE Educators

Delivering a cohesive oncology curriculum to medical students is challenging due to oncology's multidisciplinary nature, predominantly outpatient clinical setting, and lack of data describing effective approaches to teaching it. We sought to better characterize approaches to oncology education at US medical schools by surveying third and fourth year medical students who serve on their institution's curriculum committee. We received responses from students at 19 schools (15.2% response rate). Key findings included the following: (1) an under-emphasis of cancer in the curriculum relative to other common diseases; (2) imbalanced involvement of different clinical subspecialists as educators; (3) infrequent requirements for students to rotate through non-surgical oncologic clerkships; and (4) students are less confident in their knowledge of cancer treatment compared to basic science/natural history or workup/diagnosis. Based on these findings, we provide several recommendations to achieve robust multidisciplinary curriculum design and implementation that better balances the clinical and classroom aspects of oncology education.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the learning curves of the self-taught "pioneers" of laparoscopic liver surgery (LLS) with those of the trained "early adopters" in terms of short- and medium-term patient outcomes to establish if the learning curve can be reduced with specific training.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA

It is expected that a wider adoption of a laparoscopic approach to liver surgery will be seen in the next few years. Current guidelines stress the need for an incremental, stepwise progression through the learning curve in order to minimize harm to patients. Previous studies have examined the learning curve in Stage 2 of the IDEAL paradigm of surgical innovation; however, LLS is now in stage 3 with specific training being provided to surgeons.

METHODS

Using risk-adjusted cumulative sum analysis, the learning curves and short- and medium-term outcomes of 4 "pioneering" surgeons from stage 2 were compared with 4 "early adapting" surgeons from stage 3 who had received specific training for LLS.

RESULTS

After 46 procedures, the short- and medium-term outcomes of the "early adopters" were comparable to those achieved by the "pioneers" following 150 procedures in similar cases.

CONCLUSIONS

With specific training, "early adapting" laparoscopic liver surgeons are able to overcome the learning curve for minor and major liver resections faster than the "pioneers" who were self-taught in LLS. The findings of this study are applicable to all surgical specialties and highlight the importance of specific training in the safe expansion of novel surgical practice.

Excitatory interneurons account for the majority of neurons in the superficial dorsal horn, but despite their presumed contribution to pain and itch, there is still limited information about their organisation and function. We recently identified 2 populations of excitatory interneuron defined by expression of gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) or substance P (SP). Here, we demonstrate that these cells show major differences in their morphological, electrophysiological, and pharmacological properties. Based on their somatodendritic morphology and firing patterns, we propose that the SP cells correspond to radial cells, which generally show delayed firing. By contrast, most GRP cells show transient or single-spike firing, and many are likely to correspond to the so-called transient central cells. Unlike the SP cells, few of the GRP cells had long propriospinal projections, suggesting that they are involved primarily in local processing. The 2 populations also differed in responses to neuromodulators, with most SP cells, but few GRP cells, responding to noradrenaline and 5-HT; the converse was true for responses to the μ-opioid agonist DAMGO. Although a recent study suggested that GRP cells are innervated by nociceptors and are strongly activated by noxious stimuli, we found that very few GRP cells receive direct synaptic input from TRPV1-expressing afferents, and that they seldom phosphorylate extracellular signal-regulated kinases in response to noxious stimuli. These findings indicate that the SP and GRP cells differentially process somatosensory information.

BACKGROUND

Excretory phase computed tomography (CT) scan is used for diagnosis of renal collecting system injuries and accurate grading of high-grade renal trauma. However, optimal timing of the excretory phase is not well established. We hypothesized that there is an association between excretory phase timing and diagnosis of urinary extravasation and aimed to identify the optimal excretory phase timing for diagnosis of urinary extravasation.

METHODS

The Genito-Urinary Trauma Study collected data on high-grade renal trauma (grades III-V) from 14 Level I trauma centers between 2014 and 2017. The time between portal venous and excretory phases at initial CT scans was recorded. Poisson regression was used to measure the association between excretory phase timing and diagnosis of urinary extravasation. Predictive receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to identify a cutoff point optimizing detection of urinary extravasation.

RESULTS

Overall, 326 patients were included; 245 (75%) had excretory phase CT scans for review either initially (n = 212) or only at their follow-up (n = 33). At initial CT with excretory phase, 46 (22%) of 212 patients were diagnosed with urinary extravasation. Median time between portal venous and excretory phases was 4 minutes (interquartile range, 4-7 minutes). Time of initial excretory phase was significantly greater in those diagnosed with urinary extravasation. Increased time to excretory phase was positively associated with finding urinary extravasation at the initial CT scan after controlling for multiple factors (risk ratio per minute, 1.15; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-1.22; p 0.001). The optimal delay for detection of urinary extravasation was 9 minutes.

CONCLUSION

Timing of the excretory phase is a significant factor in accurate diagnosis of renal collecting system injury. A 9-minute delay between the early and excretory phases optimized detection of urinary extravasation.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Diagnostic tests/criteria study, level III.

PURPOSE

American minority groups have been historically underrepresented in phase III prostate cancer clinical trials despite often having higher risk disease. We analyzed enrollment trends of major racial/ethnic groups in the United States in phase III prostate cancer trials between 2003 and 2014 compared to SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) incidence data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Phase III prostate cancer trials primarily enrolling patients from the United States were identified in the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Enrollment trends were analyzed for major racial/ethnic groups. Prostate cancer incidence data from the SEER registry were used to identify enrollment targets. The enrollment difference was determined by calculating the absolute difference between the percent of a racial/ethnic subgroup in the SEER registry population and the percent of that subgroup in the phase III prostate cancer trial population.

RESULTS

Among 39 studies identified African American enrollment in therapeutic trials increased across the study period (p 0.001). The enrollment difference for African Americans was -9.0% (95% CI -7.6- -10.5, p 0.001) in 2003 to 2005 and 1.4% (95% CI 0.2-2.6, p = 0.020) in 2012 to 2014. However, African American men were under enrolled in metastatic disease trials (enrollment difference -5.8%, 95% CI -4.8- -6.8, p 0.001). Latino and Asian American men were consistently under enrolled in all trial types.

CONCLUSIONS

Minority groups in the United States were largely under enrolled in phase III prostate cancer trials between 2003 and 2014. While recruitment efforts may have had an impact, as demonstrated by increased enrollment of African American men, there remains a need to expand recruitment efforts to achieve diversity in trials.

BACKGROUND

Despite waning indications in the general population for preoperative autologous blood donation (PABD), it is a procedure that continues to be offered to healthy living liver donor (LLD). In this study, we sought to understand the impact of PABD on the LLD population.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed charts of one institution's LLDs over a 2-year period. Per institutional protocol, all accepted LLDs donated 1 unit of autologous blood before living donor hepatectomy.

RESULTS

Sixty-six LLDs underwent PABD and 59 of these donors underwent living donor hepatectomy. In this cohort, there was a significant 1.2 g/dL drop in hemoglobin (HB) from baseline (before PABD) to the evening before surgery. Mean (standard deviation [SD]) procedure estimated blood loss was 260 mL (±100), mean (SD) resected graft weight was 592 g (±174). No allogeneic blood was transfused. Forty-two percent of LLD received autologous transfusion. Mean (SD) pretransfusion HB of transfused LLDs was 11.7 g/dL (±1.2). All LLDs had negative antibody screens. Sixty-three percent of donated autologous units were discarded.

CONCLUSIONS

Preoperative autologous blood donation in our population is associated with decreased preoperative HB, increased exposure of healthy LLD to unnecessary transfusion-related risks and high rates of discarded blood product. We encourage further investigation and reconsideration of the practice of PABD and autologous transfusion in LLDs.