Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 17.05.2021
Triple Negative Breast Cancer More Deadly in African Americans
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_57430" align="alignleft" width="108"] Dr. Ying Liu[/caption]
Ying Liu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Washington University School of Medicine
Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences
St. Louis, MO
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Non-Hispanic African American women experience a disproportional burden of poor breast cancer outcomes than non-Hispanic White women, which is associated with a higher incidence of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), more advanced stages at diagnosis, and lower treatment adherence. However, the differences in clinical treatment and outcomes between African American women with TNBC and their White counterparts have not been well defined.
Dr. Ying Liu[/caption]
Ying Liu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Washington University School of Medicine
Department of Surgery, Division of Public Health Sciences
St. Louis, MO
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Non-Hispanic African American women experience a disproportional burden of poor breast cancer outcomes than non-Hispanic White women, which is associated with a higher incidence of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), more advanced stages at diagnosis, and lower treatment adherence. However, the differences in clinical treatment and outcomes between African American women with TNBC and their White counterparts have not been well defined.
Dr. Hoberman[/caption]
Alejandro Hoberman, M.D.
Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Division Director, General Academic Pediatrics, and Professor of Pediatrics and Clinical and Translational Science
Jack L. Paradise, MD Endowed Professor of Pediatric Research, UPMC Children's Hospital of PittsburghPresident, UPMC Children's Community Pediatrics
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Acute otitis media (AOM) is the most frequently diagnosed illness in children in the United States for which antibiotics are prescribed. Recurrent AOM is the principal indication for tympanostomy-tube placement, the most frequently performed operation in children after the newborn period. Supporting the performance of tympanostomy-tube placement for recurrent acute otitis media has been the commonplace observation, after surgery, of acute otitis media–free periods of varying duration. Counterbalancing this view have been the cost of tympanostomy-tube placement; risks and possible late sequelae of anesthesia in young children; the possible occurrence of refractory tube otorrhea, tube blockage, premature extrusion, or dislocation of the tube into the middle-ear cavity; various structural tympanic membrane sequelae; and the possible development of mild conductive hearing loss. Tempering support for surgery is the progressive reduction in the incidence of acute otitis media that usually accompanies a child’s increasing age.
Previous trials of tympanostomy-tube placement for recurrent acute otitis media, all conducted before the introduction of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, have given mixed results and were limited, variously, by small sample size, uncertain validity of diagnoses of acute otitis media determining trial eligibility, short periods of follow-up, and substantial attrition of participants. Official recommendations regarding tympanostomy-tube placement for children with recurrent acute otitis media differ — an otolaryngologic guideline recommends the procedure for children with recurrent acute otitis media, provided that middle-ear effusion is present in at least one ear; a contemporaneous pediatric guideline discusses tympanostomy-tube placement as an “option [that] clinicians may offer.”
Given these uncertainties, we undertook the present trial involving children 6 to 35 months of age who had a history of recurrent acute otitis media to determine whether tympanostomy-tube placement, as compared with medical management (comprising episodic antimicrobial treatment, with the option of tympanostomy-tube placement in the event of treatment failure), would result in a greater reduction in the children’s rate of recurrence of acute otitis media during the ensuing 2-year period.
Dr. Salciccioli[/caption]
Justin Salciccioli, MBBS, MA
Research Fellow in Medicine
[caption id="attachment_57392" align="alignleft" width="150"]
Dr. Israel[/caption]
Elliot Israel, MD
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Pulmonary and Critical Care, Rheumatology, Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Asthma attacks account for almost 50% of the cost of asthma care, which costs $80 billion each year in the United States. Asthma is more severe in African-American/Black and Hispanic/Latinx patients, with these groups having double the rates of attacks and hospitalizations as the general population. The PREPARE study is an ongoing national clinical trial for African American/Black and Hispanic/Latinx adults with moderate-to-severe asthma from different U.S. cities in which reporting of asthma control and asthma exacerbations was monitored entirely remotely.
With the arrival of the Covid19 pandemic, several studies suggested that asthma exacerbations may have decreased during the pandemic. However, multiple reports have suggested people were avoiding health services because of the pandemic, making it difficult to tell whether exacerbations truly decreased or whether people were simply avoiding their doctors. This is the first study done to assess asthma exacerbations before and during the pandemic that is unlikely to be impacted by patient healthcare avoidance.
Dr. Andersson[/caption]
Niklas Worm Andersson, MD
Department of Epidemiology Research
Statens Serum Institut,
Copenhagen Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: "Findings from some previous fetal safety studies on topical corticosteroid use in pregnancy have raised concerns for an increased risk of newborns being small for gestational age or having low birth weight, in particular among pregnancies where larger amounts of potent to very potent agents have been used."
Dr. Mezue[/caption]
Kenechukwu Ndubisi Mezue, M.D
Fellow in 
Dr. Wong[/caption]
John B. Wong, M.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Vice chair for Clinical Affairs
Chief of the Division of Clinical Decision Making and
Primary care Clinician
Department of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Hypertension affects nearly half of all adults in the United States and is a major risk factor for many serious health conditions. Fortunately, by screening all adults for hypertension, clinicians can improve their patient’s health. The Task Force continues to recommend screening all adults for hypertension so that they can get the care they need to help prevent health conditions such as heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.
Dr. Jinhee Hur[/caption]
Jinhee Hur, PhD
Research Fellow
Department of Nutrition
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC, age <50 years at diagnosis) is rapidly rising in the US since the mid-1980s, with an unclear understanding of its etiology and contributors to the rise. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) exert adverse metabolic repercussions throughout the life course, including insulin resistance and inflammation. Higher SSB intake can induce obesity, which has been linked to risk of EO-CRC. A recent experimental study also suggests that high fructose corn syrup, a primary sweetener in SSBs, may promote colon tumor growth, independent of metabolic dysregulation. In the US, SSB consumption has dramatically increased during the 2nd half of the 20th century, and adolescents and young adults have been the heaviest SSB drinkers across all age groups. Thus, we expect SSBs may be an emerging risk factor for EO-CRC and likely contribute to the rising incidence of EO-CRC.
Dr. Navlakha[/caption]
Saket Navlakha PhD
Simons Center for Quantitative Biology
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this algorithm? How does it aide in patient care?
Response: The machine learning algorithm helps to predict if and when a patient will develop severe COVID symptoms, based on information on how the patient presents on the day of infection. This could lead to improved patient outcomes, by getting a “heads up” on what may happen in the near future.
Dr. Peruvemba[/caption]
Ramani “Ram” Peruvemba, MD, FASA
Co-founder and CMO of HSR.health
MedicalResearch.com: Would you tell us about your background?
Response: I am a dual-board certified Anesthesiologist and Pain Management physician, currently serving as the co-founder and CMO of 
Dr. Hong-Sheng Wang[/caption]
Hong-Sheng Wang PhD
Department of Pharmacology and Systems Physiology
University of Cincinnati
College of Medicine, Cincinnati
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What is the significance of tritan?
Response: Bisphenol A (BPA) is used widely in the manufacturing of consumer plastic goods. Researchers and the general public increasingly recognize the potentially harmful effect of BPA. These days BPA-based polycarbonate plastic water bottles have all but disappeared in most US stores, replaced by various BPA-free bottles including Tritan bottles.
Tritan is a plastic that is not based on BPA or BPA analogues. In earlier studies, we unexpectedly found transient release of BPA from some Tritan bottles. Similar results have been reported in a past study. We wanted to figure out why the BPA release from Tritan bottles, and how consumers can best clean their bottles.
As a specialized healthcare position where you will be responsible for the health and wellbeing of patients, nurses are required to hold a degree and a license before they can begin work. To qualify as a registered nurse, you will need to obtain a BSN degree, which typically takes around four years when studying full-time. However, if you already have a bachelor’s degree in another subject, there is an option that will allow you to become a nurse in half the time; accelerated nursing programs are designed for those who already have a bachelor’s degree and want a quick career change into nursing. The 
