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BackgroundThe pregnancy rate after cancer treatment for female survivors is lower than that of the general population. Future infertility is a significant concern for patients with breast cancer and is associated with a poor quality of life. Reproductive-age patients with breast cancer have safe options when choosing a type of fertility preservation method to be applied. Better information and support resources aimed at women to support their decision making are needed. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to develop a web-based shared decision-making tool for helping patients with breast cancer make decisions on fertility preservation. MethodsWe used the action research cycle of observing, reflecting, planning, and acting to develop a web-based shared decision-making tool. The following four phrases were applied: (1) observe and reflect—collect and analyze the decision-making experiences of patients and health care providers; (2) reflect and plan—apply the initial results to create a paper design and modify the content; (3) plan and act—brainstorm about the web pages and modify the content; (4) act and observe—evaluate the effectiveness and refine the website’s shared decision-making tool. Interviews, group meetings, and constant dialogue were conducted between the various participants at each step. Effectiveness was evaluated using the Preparation for Decision-Making scale. ResultsFive major parts were developed with the use of the action research approach. The Introduction (part 1) describes the severity of cancer treatment and infertility. Options (part 2) provides the knowledge of fertility preservation. The shared decision-making tool was designed as a step-by-step process (part 3) that involves the comparison of options, patient values, and preferences; their knowledge regarding infertility and options; and reaching a collective decision. Resources (part 4) provides information on the hospitals that provide such services, and References (part 5) lists all the literature cited in the website. The results show the web-based shared decision-making meets both patients’ and health providers’ needs and helps reproductive-age patients with breast cancer make decisions about fertility preservation. ConclusionsWe have created the first web-based shared decision-making tool for making fertility preservation decisions in Taiwan. We believe female patients of reproductive age will find the tool useful and its use will become widespread, which should increase patient autonomy and improve communication about fertility preservation with clinicians. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04602910; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04602910

Background CDK4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) have shown great efficacy in prolonging progression-free survival and is the current standard of care for hormone positive (HR(+)) metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Despite well tolerability and ease of use, the most common side effect of CDK4/6i is myelosuppression, with neutropenia the most prevalent adverse effect. Studies show that the prevalence and severity of neutropenia are more marked in Asian patients, although details remain obscure. Methods In this study, we retrospectively analyzed 105 Taiwanese patients who received palbociclib for HR(+) HER2(−) mBC at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital. To investigate a possible genetic association for high prevalence of neutropenia, we queried the Taiwan Biobank with publicly available germline databases (ALFA, gnomAD, ExAC, 1000 Genomes project, HapMap), for the allele frequencies of 4 neutropenia-related SNPs (ABCB1_rs1045642, ABCB1_rs1128503, ERCC1_rs3212986, ERCC1_rs11615) and compared between different ethnicities. In addition, one of the patients was a long-term patient with peritoneal dialysis. We quantified the levels of palbociclib in her serum and peritoneal fluid by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Results Interestingly, in our cohort, early neutropenia nadir (occurred within 56 days of start) was associated with worse treatment outcome, while occurrence of grade 3/4 neutropenia was associated with better outcome. We observed an extremely high incidence of neutropenia (96.2% any grade, 70.4% grade 3/4). In the analyzed germline databases, we discovered a higher SNP frequency of the T allele in ABCB1_rs1128503, a lower frequency of T allele in ABCB1_rs1045642, and a higher SNP frequency of G allele in ERCC1_rs11615. We observed that palbociclib levels in peritoneal dialysate ranged from around 20-50 ppb, and serum levels reached 100-110 ppb during drug administration and decreased to <10 ppb during discontinuation. Conclusion Our retrospective analysis of real world palbociclib use reveals an association with grade 3/4 neutropenia with better outcome and early neutropenia nadir with worse outcome. Our findings of Asian specific SNPs support a predisposition toward profound and prevalent neutropenia in Asian patients under CDK4/6i. We also report the first pharmacokinetics analysis on a patient with peritoneal dialysis receiving CDK4/6i. In summary, our study provides novel clinical and genotypic insights into CDK4/6i associated neutropenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The VGH-TAYLOR study comprised a subgroup of early-stage breast cancer patients. Targeted sequencing was performed for both fresh-frozen paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissue and plasma. Common genes interrogated by both platforms were identified, and the concordance between paired targeted sequencing results from the same individual is reported. Only one-quarter of breast cancers were concordant between tumor and liquid biopsy from the same subject. Early-stage breast cancer might shed less circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from the tumor and compromise the detectability of liquid biopsy. In this study, we evaluated the concordance of targeted sequencing between paired ctDNA and matched tumor samples from early breast cancers treated with curative intention. Molecular profiling was performed using the Oncomine Comprehensive Assay v3 and the Oncomine Breast cfDNA Assay v2. The liquid biopsy detection rate was 39% (all-stage breast cancers, n = 612). Among 246 early-stage patients assayed for both ctDNA and matched tumor, the cfDNA assay detected 73 (29.6%) and the comprehensive assay detected 201 (81.7%) breast cancers with at least one alteration (χ2 test, p = 0.001). In total, 67 (25.6%) cases tested positive on both platforms, while the cfDNA and comprehensive assays detected an additional 10 (4%) and 138 (56%) cases, respectively. The most prevalent mutant genes were TP53 (68.3%) and KRAS (53.5%), while the PIK3CA (39.4%), AKT1 (45.9%), and ERBB2 (17.1%) mutations constituted biomarkers for FDA-approved therapeutics. Our study showed that tumor tissue should be the source of actionable mutation detection for early breast cancers, considering that the concordance rate between tumor and liquid biopsy was only one-quarter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have outperformed conventional display technologies in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and televisions while gradually growing to cover a sizable fraction of the solid-state lighting industry. Blue emission is a crucial chromatic component for realizing high-quality red, green, blue, and yellow (RGBY) and RGB white display technologies and solid-state lighting sources. For consumer products with desirable lifetimes and efficiency, deep blue emissions with much higher power efficiency and operation time are necessary prerequisites. This article reviews over 700 papers covering various factors, namely, the crucial role of blue emission for full-color displays and solid-state lighting, the performance status of blue OLEDs, and the systematic development of fluorescent, phosphorescent, and thermally activated delayed fluorescence blue emitters. In addition, various challenges concerning deep blue efficiency, lifetime, and approaches to realizing deeper blue emission and higher efficacy for blue OLED devices are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quasi-experimental design was adopted to investigate the effect of integrating technology into mathematics teaching on students' number sense and their learning attitudes. Two sixth-grade classes were selected from an elementary school in Taiwan for participation in this study. The control group with 32 students followed their usual mathematics instruction on number sense without using technology. The experimental group with 32 students learned number sense in a technology-based environment. The ANCOVA results showed a statistically significant difference between the control group and the experimental group on number sense performance. The "t"- test results showed no significant difference before and after the instruction for the control group. However, there was a statistically significant difference before and after the instruction for the experimental group. Furthermore, data also showed a significant difference in the students' learning attitudes between the control group and the experimental group after the teaching. These results indicated that integrating technology into number sense teaching and learning not only promote students' number sense, but also has a positive effect on attitudes towards learning number sense. (Contains 5 tables and 6 figures.)