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“Purpose: Approximately 90 million American adults have literacy skills that test below a high school reading level. Websites written above this level can pose a challenge for those
seeking online information about prostate cancer treatment options. In this study we determine the readability of selected websites using a systematic search process and validated readability formulas.
Materials and Methods: We identified the 3 most popular keywords from 513 terms related to prostate cancer treatment options. We then systematically collected 270 websites from the top 3 search engines, and excluded from study those that were nonEnglish, not primarily text, irrelevant and/or duplicated. We used the Flesch-Kincaid grade level and Flesch Reading Ease to determine scores for each site.
Results: A total of 62 unique
websites were analyzed. Median Flesch-Kincaid grade level was 12.0 (range 8.0 to 12.0) and median Flesch Reading Ease score was 38.1 selleck (range 0.0 to 65.5). Only 3 sites (4.8%) were written below a high school reading level (less than 9.0).
Conclusions: Few websites with discussions on prostate cancer treatment options are written below a high school reading level. This is problematic for a third of Americans who seek to further educate themselves using online resources. Clinicians can use this information to guide their patients to appropriate websites.”
“Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant plasma cell neoplasm that accounts for Elesclomol (STA-4783) slightly more than 10% of all hematologic cancers and remains incurable. The major PD173074 challenge remains the identification of better diagnosis and prognostic biomarkers.
The advent of proteomic technologies creates new opportunities and challenges for those seeking to gain greater understanding of MM. Although there is a limited number of proteomic studies to date in MM, those performed highlight the potential impact of these technologies in our understanding of MM pathogenesis and the identification of novel therapeutic targets. In this review, we introduce the proteomic technologies available for the study of MM, summarize results of the published proteomic studies on MM, and discuss the novel developments and applications for the analysis of protein PTM in MM. The application of proteomic technologies will be valuable to better understand the pathogenesis of MM and may in the future open novel avenues in the treatment of MM.”
“Purpose: Routine sampling of the transition zone during prostate biopsy has become increasingly common. Although approximately 10% of prostate cancers originate in the transition zone, the benefit of transition zone biopsies may be limited. We evaluated the usefulness of transition zone biopsy in patients with prostate cancer enrolled in active surveillance.
Materials and Methods: Patients on active surveillance followed at our institution between 1993 and 2011 were identified in the urological oncology database.