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- Carlstedt, Emma, et al.
(författare)
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Stroke survivors’ preferences regarding study participation in rehabilitation research
- 2022
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Ingår i: BMC Medical Research Methodology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2288. ; 22:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: To pursue high quality research, successful participant recruitment is essential, but recruitment rates are often low. This is specifically true in target populations with impairments, for instance, among stroke survivors. Previous studies focusing on recruitment have mainly relied on information from professionals, and there is therefore a need to contribute with new methodological insights to how potential rehabilitation research participants describe their interest and preferences to participate in research. The purpose of this study was to generate knowledge about stroke survivors’ interest in participating in rehabilitation research, reasons for being interested or not, and preferred forms and foci of rehabilitation interventions. An additional aim was to describe preferences regarding survey administration modes and processes for recruitment to studies. Method: This cross-sectional study recruited Swedish residents who had sustained a stroke, initially by using advertisement on the National Stroke Association’s website, flyers posted at local occupational and physical therapy offices and at local stroke/senior organization meetings. Secondly, participants were recruited through a local stroke register. The survey, administered either in a paper form returned by postal mail; online or as a phone interview with 128 stroke survivors. Results: Most of the participants were interested in participating in rehabilitation research, particularly younger persons (p = 0.001) and those closer to stroke onset (p = 0.047). Contribution to research, possibility to try new rehabilitation interventions and meeting others in the same situation were reasons that attracted an interest to participate. Other important aspects were related to motivation, individual needs, as well as how skilled the people who provided the intervention were. Participants preferred group-based programs, and programs focusing on regaining lost functions were highly requested. A majority wanted to be contacted through postal mail (70%) and most of them (90%) used the paper form to respond to the survey. Conclusions: A range of personal and external aspects, including challenges related to digitized administration modes, should be considered to achieve high participation rates in rehabilitation research targeting stroke survivors. The importance of addressing individual needs and prerequisites in an individualized manner should not be underestimated and might be a useful strategy to recruitment success.
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| 2. |
- Gunnlaugsson, Adalsteinn, et al.
(författare)
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A prospective phase II study of prostate-specific antigen-guided salvage radiotherapy and Ga-68-PSMA-PET for biochemical relapse after radical prostatectomy-The PROPER 1 trial
- 2022
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Ingår i: Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology. - : Elsevier BV. - 2405-6308. ; 36, s. 77-82
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background and purpose: The treatment of biochemical recurrence (BCR) after prostatectomy is challenging as the site of the recurrence is often undetectable. Our aim was to test a personalised treatment concept for BCR based on PSA kinetics during salvage radiotherapy (SRT) combined with prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography (PSMA-PET). Materials and methods: This phase II trial included 100 patients with BCR. PSMA-PET was performed at baseline. PSA was measured weekly during SRT. Initially, 70 Gy in 35 fractions was prescribed to the prostate bed. Radiotherapy was adapted after 50 Gy. Non-responders (PSA still >= 0.15 ng/mL) received sequential lymph node irradiation with a boost to PSMA-PET positive lesions, while responders (PSA < 0.15 ng/mL) continued SRT as planned. PET-findings were only taken into consideration for treatment planning in case of PSA non-response after 50 Gy. Results: Data from 97 patients were eligible for analysis. Thirty-four patients were classified as responders and 63 as non-responders. PSMA-PET was positive in 3 patients (9%) in the responder group and in 22 (35%) in the non-responder group (p = 0.007). The three-year failure-free survival was 94% for responders and 68% for non-responders (median follow-up 38 months). There were no significant differences in physician-reported urinary and bowel toxicity. Patient-reported diarrhoea at end of SRT was more common among non-responders. Conclusion: This new personalised treatment concept with intensified SRT based on PSA response demonstrated a high tumour control rate in both responders and non-responders. These results suggest a clinically significant effect with moderate side effects in a patient group with otherwise poor prognosis. PSMA-PET added limited value. The treatment approach is now being evaluated in a phase III trial.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Mahadhy, Ally, et al.
(författare)
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Rapid detection of mecA gene of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by a novel, label-free real-time capacitive biosensor
- 2020
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Ingår i: Biotechnology Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2215-017X. ; 28
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This work presents a rapid, selective and sensitive automated sequential injection flow system with a capacitive biosensor for detection of the mecA gene (the model chosen for this study), which emerges from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. A DNA-based 25-mer capture probe was immobilized on the surface of a gold electrode which was integrated in the capacitive sensor system. A constant current pulse was applied and the resulting capacitance was measured. Injection of the target DNA sample to the sensor surface induced hybridization to occur between the target and the complementary sequence, which resulted in a shift in the measured capacitance (ΔC). The ΔC was directly proportional to the concentrations of the applied target probe with linearity ranging from 10−12 to 10−7 M. The biosensor had a detection limit of 6.0 × 10−13 M and a recovery of 95 % of the mecA gene when spiked in human saliva. The biosensor showed a promising selectivity. It could clearly discriminate single-base, two-base and twelve-base mismatch probes with a decrease in the signal strength by 13 %, 26 %, and 89 %, respectively relative to the signal strength of the complementary target probe. There was no significant signal observed for the non-complementary probe. The biosensor-chip could be re-used for more than 12 cycles with residual capacity of 94.5 ± 4.3 % and a RSD of 4.6 % by regenerating the biosensor-chip with a solution of 50 mM NaOH.
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| 5. |
- Sandblom, Viktor, 1987, et al.
(författare)
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Increased therapeutic effect on medullary thyroid cancer using a combination of radiation and tyrosine kinase inhibitors : Increased effect on medullary thyroid cancer by combining radiation with tyrosine kinase inhibitors
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 15:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Since patients with medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) often have metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, the development of efficient systemic treatment options for MTC is important. Vandetanib and cabozantinib are two tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that were recently approved by FDA and EMA for systemic treatment of metastatic MTC. Additionally, since MTC is of a neuroendocrine tumour type, treatment with radiolabelled somatostatin analogues (e.g. 177Lu-octreotate) is a valid option for patients with MTC. The aim of this study was to investigate the potentially increased therapeutic effect of combining radiation therapy with these TKIs for treatment of MTC in a mouse model. Nude mice carrying patient-derived MTC tumours (GOT2) were treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and/or one of the two TKIs vandetanib or cabozantinib. The tumour volume was determined and compared with that of mock-treated controls. The treatment doses were chosen to give a moderate effect as monotherapy to be able to detect any increased therapeutic effect from the combination therapy. At the end of follow-up, tumours were processed for immunohistochemical (IHC) analyses. The animals in the combination therapy groups showed the largest reduction in tumour volume and the longest time to tumour progression. Two weeks after start of treatment, the tumour volume for these mice was reduced by about 70-75% compared with controls. Furthermore, also EBRT and TKI monotherapy resulted in a clear anti-tumour effect with a reduced tumour growth compared with controls. The results show that an increased therapeutic effect could be achieved when irradiation is combined with TKIs for treatment of MTC. Future studies should evaluate the potential of using 177Lu-octreotate therapy in combination with TKIs in patients.
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| 6. |
- Ståhl, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Why ecosystem characteristics predicted from remotely sensed data are unbiased and biased at the same time – and how this affects applications
- 2024
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Ingår i: Forest Ecosystems. - : Elsevier. - 2095-6355 .- 2197-5620. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Remotely sensed data are frequently used for predicting and mapping ecosystem characteristics, and spatially explicit wall-to-wall information is sometimes proposed as the best possible source of information for decision-making. However, wall-to-wall information typically relies on model-based prediction, and several features of model-based prediction should be understood before extensively relying on this type of information. One such feature is that model-based predictors can be considered both unbiased and biased at the same time, which has important implications in several areas of application. In this discussion paper, we first describe the conventional model-unbiasedness paradigm that underpins most prediction techniques using remotely sensed (or other) auxiliary data. From this point of view, model-based predictors are typically unbiased. Secondly, we show that for specific domains, identified based on their true values, the same model-based predictors can be considered biased, and sometimes severely so.We suggest distinguishing between conventional model-bias, defined in the statistical literature as the difference between the expected value of a predictor and the expected value of the quantity being predicted, and design-bias of model-based estimators, defined as the difference between the expected value of a model-based estimator and the true value of the quantity being predicted. We show that model-based estimators (or predictors) are typically design-biased, and that there is a trend in the design-bias from overestimating small true values to underestimating large true values. Further, we give examples of applications where this is important to acknowledge and to potentially make adjustments to correct for the design-bias trend. We argue that relying entirely on conventional model-unbiasedness may lead to mistakes in several areas of application that use predictions from remotely sensed data.
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