News in brief: Aussies identify promising new targets in colorectal cancer; H. pylori vaccine within a decade; Abbreviations cause confusion on discharge summaries

7 Dec 2021

Aussies identify promising new targets in colorectal cancer

Australian researchers have identified new therapeutic targets in colorectal cancer while exploring cancer-associated fibroblasts’ (CAFs) origin and role in the disease.

The study, conducted in mice and and human tissue samples, found CAFs arise from intestinal pericryptal Leptin receptor (Lepr)+ cells that express high levels of tumour-masking melanoma cell adhesion molecule (MCAM).

This over-expression is induced by transforming growth factor-β and associated with worse outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer.

Meanwhile, Mcam knockout mice had attenuated tumour growth and improved survival “through decreased tumour-associated macrophage recruitment”.

“Mechanistically, fibroblast MCAM interacted with interleukin-1 receptor 1 to augment nuclear factor-ĸB-IL34/CCL8 signalling that promotes macrophage chemotaxis,” University of Adelaide Senior Research Fellow Associate Professor Susan Woods, gastroenterologist and University of Adelaide Beat Cancer Research Fellow Associate Professor Daniel Worthley and their team wrote in Gastroenterology.

Preventing Lepr-lineage CAF development or blocking MCAM activity “could be effective therapeutic approaches for [colorectal cancer],” they concluded.


H. pylori vaccine within a decade

Developing a human vaccine against H. pylori is the potentially feasible within 10 years, according to scientists at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne .

Professor Richard Ferrero is leading a study funded by the US Department of Defense that aims to offer an alternative to antibiotic therapy for the microbe that is known to be a cause of inflammation, gastric ulcers and stomach cancer

The department is funding a three-year research study at the Institute through its Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP) Idea Award, which aims to develop a vaccine that could be used to protect military veterans and their families from H. pylori, particularly those of African-American, Hispanic and Asian ethnicities.

Professor Ferrero a microbiologist and NHMRC Senior Research fellow at the Institute, is also leading research projects into the role of long non-coding RNAs in H. pylori infection and the mechanism by which the host defence molecule NOD1 regulates innate immune responses to H. pylori.


Discharge summary abbreviations cause confusion

Medical abbreviations used by specialists in hospital discharge summaries are often confusing to the GPs who receive them and also ambiguous for hospital colleagues and junior doctors, an Australian study has found.

A retrospective audit of 802 discharge summaries at a Queensland regional health service found that they contained an average of 17 abbreviations, and almost one in five GPs were unable to interpret at least one of them.

Almost all (94%) of GPs said that ambiguous abbreviations had a negative impact on patient care and 60% said they spent too much time of clarifying them. Abbreviations could also have multiple possible meanings in different contexts and led to confusion for 15% of junior doctors working in other departments of the same hospital, the study found.

While most had no problems with abbreviations such as Hb and IHD, the abbreviations that had widest range of misinterpretations or ‘don’t know’ responses included NAD, DEM, PE, LC, TGA, TCH and BAE.

The study authors said hospitals should adopt a standardised list of acceptable abbreviations for medical documentation, which is made available to both hospital medical staff and GPs.

They also noted that abbreviations were very location specific, with marked differences between those used by Melbourne and Sydney hospitals.

The findings are published in the Internal Medicine Journal.

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