Creating a community-based comprehensive intervention to improve asthma control in a low-income, low-resourced community

Introduction: Asthma evidence-based interventions (EBI) are implemented in the home, school, community or primary care setting. Although families are engaged in one setting, they often have to navigate challenges in another setting.Objective: Our objective is to design and implement a comprehensive plan which integrates EBI's and connects the four sectors in underserved communities such as Philadelphia.Methods: September 2015-April 2016 we implemented a three-pronged strategy to understand needs and resources of the community including 1) focus groups and key informant interviews, 2) secondary data analysis and 3) pilot testing for implementation to determine gaps in care, and opportunities to overcome those gaps.Results: Analysis of the focus group and key informant responses showed themes: diagnosis fear, clinician time, home and school asthma trigger exposures, school personnel training and communication gaps across all four sectors. EBI's were evaluated and selected to address identified themes. Pilot testing of a community health worker (CHW) intervention to connect home, primary care and school resulted in an efficient transfer of asthma medications and medication administration forms to the school nurse office for students with uncontrolled asthma addressing a common delay leading to poor asthma management in school.Conclusion: Thus far there has been limited success in reducing asthma disparities for low-income minority children. This study offers hope that strategically positioning CHWs may work synergistically to close gaps in care and result in improved asthma control and reduced asthma disparities.

Abstract OT2-06-04: MORPHEUS: A phase Ib/II trial platform evaluating the safety and efficacy of multiple cancer immunotherapy combinations in patients with hormone receptor–positive and triple-negative breast cancer

Background:

Cancer immunotherapy (CIT) has significantly improved overall survival across multiple tumor types, but only subsets of patients experience durable response with single-agent CIT. Combinations of CIT with targeted therapy or chemotherapy may be needed in order to target multiple cancer immune escape mechanisms simultaneously, thus providing personalized treatment options that extend clinical benefit to more patients. The MORPHEUS platform includes multiple phase Ib/II trials designed to identify early signals of safety and activity of CIT combinations. Using a randomized trial design, multiple CIT combination arms are compared with a single standard-of-care control arm. These trials have the flexibility to open new treatment arms with novel CIT combinations as they become available and to close arms that show minimal activity or unacceptable toxicity. Here we describe MORPHEUS trials in patients with metastatic or unresectable locally advanced hormone receptor–positive (HR+BC) or triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), 2 patient populations in need of more treatment options.

Trial design:

MORPHEUS-HR+BC (NCT03280563) will enroll patients with metastatic or unresectable locally advanced HR+BC who have progressed during or after first-line treatment with a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor and whose tumors do not express human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). MORPHEUS-TNBC (NCT03424005) will enroll patients with metastatic or unresectable locally advanced TNBC who have progressed during or after first-line treatment with chemotherapy. For both studies, key inclusion criteria include Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-1 (stage 1) or 0-2 (stage 2) and measurable disease per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) v1.1. Key exclusion criteria include prior treatment with T-cell co-stimulating or immune checkpoint blockade therapies, and symptomatic, untreated, or actively progressing central nervous system metastases. Patients in both trials will be randomized to one of the CIT atezolizumab combination arms or a control arm (up to 5 arms in HR+BC and up to 6 arms in TNBC). Patients experiencing loss of clinical benefit or unacceptable toxicity in stage 1 may be eligible to switch to a different CIT atezolizumab combination arm in stage 2. Primary endpoints are safety measures and investigator-assessed objective response rate per RECIST v1.1. Progression-free survival, overall survival, duration of response, clinical benefit rate (HR+BC) or disease control rate (TNBC) are among the secondary endpoints. Exploratory biomarkers will also be examined.

Citation Format: Yardley DA, Abu-Khalaf M, Boni V, Brufsky A, Emens LA, Gutierrez M, Hurvitz S, Im S-A, Loi S, McCune SL, Schmid P, O'Hear C, Zhang X, Vidal GA. MORPHEUS: A phase Ib/II trial platform evaluating the safety and efficacy of multiple cancer immunotherapy combinations in patients with hormone receptor–positive and triple-negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2018 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2018 Dec 4-8; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(4 Suppl):Abstract nr OT2-06-04.

Fabrication of Cu-W Nanocomposites by Integration of Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis and Hot Explosive Consolidation Technologies

Manufacturing W-Cu composite nanopowders was performed via joint reduction of CuO and WO3 oxides with various ratios (W:Cu = 2:1, 1:1, 1:3, 1:13.5) using combined Mg–C reducer. Combustion synthesis was used to synthesize homogeneous composite powders of W-Cu and hot explosive consolidation (HEC) technique was utilized to fabricate dense compacts from ultrafine structured W-Cu powders. Compact samples obtained from nanometer sized SHS powders demonstrated weak relation between the susceptibility and the applied magnetic field in comparison with the W and Cu containing micrometer grain size of metals. The density, microstructural uniformity and mechanical properties of SHS&HEC prepared samples were also evaluated. Internal friction (Q-1) and Young modulus (E) of fabricated composites studied for all samples indicated that the temperature 1000 °С is optimal for full annealing of microscopic defects of structure and internal stresses. Improved characteristics for Young modulus and internal friction were obtained for the W:Cu = 1:13.5 composite. According to microhardness measurement results, W-Cu nanopowders obtained by SHS method and compacted by HEC technology were characterized by enhanced (up to 85%) microhardness.

Mechanisms of functional improvement through cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenia

Whereas the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation in schizophrenia is widely known, studies examining mechanisms for functional improvement are still scarce. The aim of the study was to examine the mediational mechanisms through which cognitive rehabilitation improves functioning in schizophrenia. One hundred and eleven schizophrenia patients were randomly assigned to either a 4-month cognitive rehabilitation group or an active control group. Patients underwent a neurocognitive battery (including processing speed, verbal memory, working memory and executive functioning) and social cognition assessment (emotion perception, theory of mind and social perception). Functioning was assessed by the combined use of a performance-based instrument, the UCSD Performance-based Skills Assessment (UPSA) and an observer-rated instrument, the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). The trial was registered in clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02796417). Multiple mediational analyses revealed that the effect of cognitive rehabilitation on functional improvement was partially mediated by changes in processing speed and verbal memory, but not by the domains of social cognition and negative symptoms. More specifically, verbal memory partially mediated the treatment's effect on performance-based functioning (UPSA), whereas processing speed acted as a partial mediator for observer-rated functioning (GAF). The effect of rehabilitation on functioning did not take place through all the domains that showed significant improvement. Verbal memory and processing speed emerged as the most crucial factors. However, these complex interactions need further research.

Airway tone dysfunction among pre-schoolers with positive asthma predictive index: A case-control study

OBJECTIVE

To measure lung function by impulse oscillometry (IOS) and spirometry in recurrent wheezer pre-schoolers according to their asthma predictive index (API) condition.

METHODS

We performed a case-control study enrolling all pre-schoolers with recurrent wheezing episodes (>3 episodes confirmed by physician) who presented at a paediatric pulmonology clinic. The population was divided according to stringent API criteria into positive or negative.

RESULTS

In the nine-month period, 109 pre-schoolers were enrolled. After excluding one patient (due to lung function technique problems) 108 pre-schoolers (56 males, age range from 24 to 72 months) completed the study; 50 belong to positive API and 58 to negative API group. There were no differences in demographics between groups. More use of ICS was found in those with positive API than with negative API (62% vs. 12%, respectively, p=0.001). No differences in basal lung function and post-bronchodilator response to salbutamol (by IOS or spirometry) were found between positive and negative API pre-schoolers. However, those positive API pre-schoolers with ICS had significantly higher central basal airway resistance (RA at 20Hz) and higher post-BD response (% change in FEF_25-75 and in FEV_0.5) than those positive API without ICS.

CONCLUSION

Recurrent wheezer pre-schoolers with positive API and ICS used may have airway dysfunction. More studies are needed to confirm this finding.