Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Nationwide abortion restrictions resulting from the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) decision have generated confusion and uncertainty among healthcare professionals, with concerns for liability impacting clinical decision-making and outcomes. ⋯ It is essential that all physicians and healthcare team members understand the legal implications on their clinical practices, engage with resources and organizations which can help navigate these circumstances, and consider advocating for patients and themselves. Pediatric surgeons must consider the impact of these changing laws on their ability to provide comprehensive and ethical care and counseling to all patients.
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Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) is an FDA-approved oncolytic herpesvirus therapy used for unresectable stage IIIB through IV metastatic melanoma. However, the correlation between clinical complete response (cCR) and pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients treated with T-VEC is understudied. ⋯ Patients achieving cCR with pCR after T-VEC therapy have the most favorable overall survival outcomes, whereas those achieving cCR without pCR have inferior survival and those achieving less than cCR have the poorest overall survival outcomes. These findings emphasize the importance of histological confirmation and provide insights for optimizing T-VEC therapy in patients with advanced melanoma.
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The Joint Surgery-Thoracic Surgery (JS-TS) pathway began as a pilot program to grant both general surgery (GS) residency and thoracic surgery (TS) fellowship credit for 12 months of the PGY-4 and 5 years. This review updates the outcomes of this novel program. ⋯ The JS-TS pathway has proven a successful alternative route for TS training and could be a blueprint for other specialties considering novel avenues to specialty training.