Browsing by Author "Capouch, Samuel"

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    Epid-07. Access to Glioblastoma Clinical Trials for Rural Patients in the United States from 2010–2020
    (Oxford University Press, 2020-11) Nevel, Kathryn; Capouch, Samuel; Arnold, Lisa; Peters, Katherine; Mohile, Nimish; Thomas, Alissa; Neurology, School of Medicine
    Background: Patients in rural communities have less access to optimal cancer care and clinical trials. For GBM, access to experimental therapies, and consideration of a clinical trial is embedded in national guidelines. Still, the availability of clinical trials to rural communities, representing 20% of the US population, has not been described. Methods: We queried ClinicalTrials.gov for glioblastoma interventional treatment trials opened between 1/2010 and 1/2020 in the United States. We created a Structured Query Language database and leveraged Google application programming interfaces (API) Places to find name and street addresses for the sites, and Google’s Geocode API to determine the county location. Counties were classified by US Department of Agriculture Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC 1–3 = urban and RUCC 4–9 = rural). We used z-ratios for rural-urban statistical comparisons. Results: We identified 406 interventional treatment trials for GBM at 1491 unique sites. 8.7% of unique sites were in rural settings. Rural sites opened an average of 1.7 trials/site and urban sites 2.8 trials/site from 1/2010–1/2020. Rural sites offered more phase II trials (63% vs 57%, p= 0.03) and fewer phase I trials (22% vs 28%, p= 0.01) than urban sites. Rural locations were more likely to offer federally-sponsored trials (p< 0.002). There were no investigator-initiated or single-institution trials offered at rural locations, and only 1% of industry trials were offered rurally. Discussion: Clinical trials for GBM were rarely open in rural areas, and were more dependent on federal funding. Clinical trials are likely difficult to access for rural patients, and this has important implications for the generalizability of research as well as how we engage the field of neuro-oncology and patient advocacy groups in improving patient access to trials. Increasing the number of clinical trials in rural locations may enable more rural patients to access and enroll in GBM studies.
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    Use of Aperio Whole Slide Imaging System to Capture and Utilize Digital Virtual Slides for Pathology Education
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2014-04-11) Capouch, Samuel; Lipking, Kelsey; Surface, Ronne Leigh; Morgan, Randy; Sandusky, George E.
    Digital whole slide imaging is the technique of digitizing an entire microscope slide at the highest resolution to produce a “digital virtual microscope slide” with high image quality. This digital image can be viewed in three to four fields, from low to high power, a feature commonly used by pathologists. This digital virtual slide can be used in conjunction with image processing software (both windows-based and browser-based) to view, manipulate, position, and specify the magnification of the image on a screen as if using a regular microscope to view the original glass slide. As the slide is captured in a virtual format, it is possible to use the image for archiving, copying, transferring over networks, distant consultation, as well as integration for educational use on the web and/or DVD. In this study, we captured all C603 and C604 sophomore pathology teaching slides in the general and systemic pathology course for viewing and learning through the Aperio ImageScope viewer. The resulting digital images possessed greater ease of use, were quicker to scan and allowed easier location of pathologic lesions in the slides. The ImageScope viewer allowed students to quickly zoom in and out of the slides at multiple fields of magnification. Instructors that have switched to the Aperio system from the old Bliss system found the Aperio system allowed the instructor to open up to 8 slides at one time, allowing side by side comparison to be completed on the same screen. The system also allows one to measure the size of the cells and to capture detailed images of tumor cells, inflammatory cells, and/or necrosis (cell death). This system is available for use on desktop, laptop, and most digital devices (such as smart phones or tablets). Compared to the old Bliss system, which is unable to perform these functions.