{"id":725035,"date":"2025-11-29T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=725035"},"modified":"2025-11-29T15:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T15:15:12","slug":"va-research-wrap-up-new-findings-on-lung-cancer-alzheimers-disease-and-maternity-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=725035","title":{"rendered":"VA Research Wrap Up: New findings on lung cancer, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and maternity care"},"content":{"rendered":"

VA\u2019s Office of Research and Development recently published three\u00a0News Briefs<\/a>\u00a0highlighting research findings on a lung cancer treatment, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and maternity care.<\/p>\n

VA lung cancer outcomes are consistently better<\/h2>\n

It may seem logical that patient outcomes after lung resection surgery are significantly better in larger hospitals that perform many of these surgeries rather than in smaller hospitals that perform the surgery much less often, but St. Louis VA researchers found VA facilities consistently have fewer major complications, incidents of recurrence and better odds of overall survival regardless of the facility\u2019s size. <\/p>\n

The researchers compared after-surgery outcomes for 12,000 Veterans from VA hospitals with 125,000 surgical outcomes from non-VA hospitals, matching the patients on factors such as age and health condition, and found VA\u2019s integrated health care model and academic partnerships lead to more consistent outcomes following surgery for early-stage lung cancer across high-volume and low-volume facilities. <\/p>\n

The findings suggest that VA\u2019s integrated system creates a consistent standard of care regardless of location. The researchers further believe VA\u2019s relationship with academic medical centers may also be helping maintain high-quality lung cancer care. View the full study from the \u201cJournal of Surgical Research.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Gene variants linked t o Alzheimer\u2019s in African Americans<\/h2>\n

Boston VA researchers and their colleagues identified almost 500 gene variants potentially related to Alzheimer\u2019s disease, with one gene, ADAMTS2, being 1.5 times more likely to be present in patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease. <\/p>\n

This study was unique because it was the largest ever Alzheimer\u2019s disease genetic study of the brain tissue of African American donors; previous studies using brain tissue samples had been mainly gathered from people of European ancestry. <\/p>\n

The researchers collected brain tissue samples from 125 African American donors who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and 82 African American donors with no Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis. Many of the gene variants identified have not previously been found in studies of European-ancestry donors. The overexpression of ADAMTS2 contributes to the buildup of Tau proteins believed to be the basis for Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The findings both point to this group of genes, particularly ADAMTS2, as potential targets for future therapies and highlight the need to include diverse study populations in genetic research. View the full study from \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s & Dementia.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Veterans say doula program enhances maternity care<\/h2>\n

Central Massachusetts VA researchers found 87% of Veterans reported positive experiences with doula care during maternity. <\/p>\n

A doula is a trained professional who provides physical, emotional and advocacy support before, during and after childbirth. The Veterans reported that having a doula helped erase previous negative birth experiences and that the doulas served as an important advocate. <\/p>\n

Researchers interviewed 28 Veterans, seven doulas, and two maternity care coordinators across two VA hospitals participating in a pilot program that added doula services to existing VA maternity care. Though the pilot program was small, the researchers noted only 17% of births were by cesarean sections, less than half of the general rate of 35%. <\/p>\n

The findings show a doula care program can be an effective addition to Veterans\u2019 current maternity care in VA. View the full study in \u201cWomen\u2019s Health Issues.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For more Office of Research and Development updates, visit\u00a0ORD online<\/a>\u00a0or go to https:\/\/www.research.va.gov\/news_briefs\/.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VA\u2019s Office of Research and Development recently published three\u00a0News Briefs\u00a0highlighting research findings on a lung cancer treatment, Alzheimer\u2019s disease and maternity care. VA lung cancer outcomes are consistently better It may seem logical that patient outcomes after lung resection surgery are significantly better in larger hospitals that perform many of these surgeries rather than in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":657500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434,580,590,164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alzheimers-disease","category-lung-cancer","category-maternity-care","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725036,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725035\/revisions\/725036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/657500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}