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Research

Medical Exemptions to Mandatory Vaccinations: The State of Play in Australia and a Pressure Point to Watch

Australia’s mandatory vaccination policies have historically allowed for non-medical exemptions, but this changed in 2016 when the Federal Government discontinued non-medical exemptions for childhood vaccination requirements. Australian states introduced further mandatory vaccination policies during the COVID-19 pandemic for a range of occupations including healthcare workers.

Research

Current approaches in tissue engineering-based nanotherapeutics for osteosarcoma treatment

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant bone neoplasm plagued by poor prognosis. Major treatment strategies include chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Chemotherapy to treat OS has severe adverse effects due to systemic toxicity to healthy cells. A possible way to overcome the limitation is to utilize nanotechnology. Nanotherapeutics is an emerging approach in treating OS using nanoparticulate drug delivery systems.

Research

PI3K/mTOR is a therapeutically targetable genetic dependency in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma

Diffuse midline glioma (DMG), including tumors diagnosed in the brainstem (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma; DIPG), are uniformly fatal brain tumors that lack effective treatment.

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Financial toxicity of informal caregivers of colorectal cancer patients: A cross-sectional study

To assess the level of financial toxicity of informal caregivers of colorectal cancer patients and explore the related key influencing factors.

Research

Rheumatic heart disease mortality in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians between 2010 and 2017

To generate contemporary age-specific mortality rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians aged <65 years who died from rheumatic heart disease between 2013 and 2017, and to ascertain the underlying causes of death of a prevalent RHD cohort aged <65 years who died during the same period.

Research

In vivo loss of tumorigenicity in a patient-derived orthotopic xenograft mouse model of ependymoma

Ependymomas (EPN) are the third most common malignant brain cancer in children. Treatment strategies for pediatric EPN have remained unchanged over recent decades, with 10-year survival rates stagnating at just 67% for children aged 0-14 years. Moreover, a proportion of patients who survive treatment often suffer long-term neurological side effects as a result of therapy. It is evident that there is a need for safer, more effective treatments for pediatric EPN patients.

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Qualitative assessment of healthy volunteer experience receiving subcutaneous infusions of high-dose benzathine penicillin G (SCIP) provides insights into design of late phase clinical studies

Secondary prophylaxis to prevent rheumatic heart disease (RHD) progression, in the form of four-weekly intramuscular benzathine benzylpenicillin G (BPG) injections, has remained unchanged since 1955. Qualitative investigations into patient preference have highlighted the need for long-acting penicillins to be delivered less frequently, ideally with reduced pain.

Research

Walking the walk to include pregnant participants in non-obstetric clinical trials: Insights from the SNAP Trial

Despite several calls for greater inclusion of pregnant people in non-obstetric clinical trials, their systematic exclusion remains common practice. Excluding pregnant individuals from clinical trials may result in unintended consequences such as inadequate treatment of medical conditions in pregnancy, inappropriate dosing of medications, and investigational therapies being used off-label outside of the context of a clinical trial, risking adverse events in the absence of demonstrated efficacy.

Research

Short Message Service Reminder Nudge for Parents and Influenza Vaccination Uptake in Children and Adolescents with Special Risk Medical Conditions: The Flutext-4U Randomized Clinical Trial

Children with chronic medical conditions are at increased risk of severe influenza. Uptake of influenza vaccination in children and adolescents with these identified special risk medical conditions is suboptimal.

Research

Association between maternal influenza vaccination and neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood: a longitudinal, population-based linked cohort study

To assess the association between in utero exposure to seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and the risk of a diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder in early childhood.