What ’ s Deterring Referring ?
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What ’ s Deterring Referring ?
Patients with blood cancers have significantly lower rates of hospice use than those with solid-tumor cancers , reflecting hematologist / oncologists ’ apprehensions about referring their patients to hospice , according to survey results published in Cancer .
In the survey of 349 United States ( U . S .) hematologist / oncologists , 68.1 % strongly agreed that hospice care was helpful .
But 46 % felt that home hospice was inadequate for their patients ’ needs ( compared to inpatient hospice with round-the-clock care ).
Additionally , 67.3 % reported that they would be more likely to refer to home hospice if it allowed red blood cell transfusion .
“ Our findings shed light on factors that are potential barriers to hospice referrals ,” said lead author Oreofe Odejide , MD , in a press release . “ These findings can be [ used ] to develop targeted interventions to address hospice underuse for patients with blood cancers .”
Source : Odejide OO , Cronin AM , Earle CC , et al . Why are patients with blood cancers more likely to die without hospice ? Cancer . 2017 May 22 . [ Epub ahead of print ]
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Concerns about the unintended consequences of genome-editing have dominated conversations about the CRISPR / Cas9 technique , and new research correspondence published in Nature Methods may further stoke those fears .
When researchers used CRISPR / Cas9 in mouse models to correct a gene that causes blindness , whole-genome sequencing comparing CRISPR-treated mice with controls revealed hundreds of new , unintended mutations , including :
• 1,397 singlenucleotide variants
• 117 insertions and deletions
The researchers did not predict any of those changes at study onset . “ We ’ re still upbeat about CRISPR ,” said study co-author Vinit Mahajan , MD , PhD , in a press release . “ We know that every new therapy has some potential side effects , but we need to be aware of what they are .”
Source : Schaefer KA , Wu WH , Colgan DF , et al . Unexpected mutations after CRISPR – Cas9 editing in vivo . Nature Meth . 2017 ; 14:547-8 .
28 ASH Clinical News September 2017