HJNO May/Jun 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAY / JUN 2020 33 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalNO.com taking a proactive role in documenting the full impact of food insecurity in our state so we can all work together to reverse those trends.” Louisiana Healthcare Connections also offers a series of Community Health Grants that provides funding to eligible schools, community organiza- tions, and healthcare providers in support of pro- grams that address hunger and food insecurity at the community level. This grant program has expanded each year and has awarded more than $150,000 to eligible entities across the state since it launched in 2018. “This program allows us to partner with organi- zations that share our commitment to improving access to healthy foods for Louisiana families,” Kight noted. “These partnerships are key to com- batting food insecurity and ultimately, improving health across vulnerable populations.” The next grant cycle will open in April of 2020. Organizations, schools and healthcare providers interested in applying for a Community Health Grant may visit www.LouisianaHealthConnect. com/grants for more information about the program. LSUHealth Expertise Helping Chinese Parents Support Children Isolated Due to COVID-19 Joy Osofsky, PhD, professor and Paul Ramsay Chair of Psychiatry, and Howard Osofsky, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Psy- chiatry at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, have developed a guide to Support- ing Young Children Isolated Due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) with a Chinese translation. “We were asked by the Chinese American Psy- choanalytic Association to develop information and materials for COVID-19 that would be help- ful to children, parents, caregivers, and others to support the children and families who have been quarantined and isolated in China,” explained Osofsky. “This material is directed more to younger children; however, we also have infor- mation available for older children as well.” The materials are being distributed to clinicians being trained in China, students, and others in communities. “The children are isolated when quarantined,” noted Osofsky. “They have to stay at home, schools are closed, and they cannot go out to play or visit friends. There is also much anxiety and stress about the Coronavirus and this mate- rial helps families and other caregivers with ways to communicate with the children.” Things that parents and caregivers can do to help children include: -Routines are very important for young children. Creating new routines or reestablishing usual rou- tines can help children feel safe. Keeping regular mealtimes and bedtimes, setting a daily time to play games together, reading to them, or singing songs together all help. -Support from parents or caregivers is very important during periods of stress and during the time after the acute disaster is over. Parents may be physically present but not available emotion- ally because they are so stressed themselves. It is important to make time to reassure young chil- dren and spend time with them. -Explain why things are different. Young children may not understand why things have changed (like why they cannot go outside or play with other children) but talking with them will help them feel to feel supported by you. Help the chil- dren in a way that is appropriate for their age. Keep explanations simple. -Take care of yourself. This is very important. Even if young children are not directly exposed to the trauma, they can recognize stress and worry in older children and adults in the house. -If young children have been sent to stay with family members in another city, talk to them using electronic means as often as possible during the day and at bedtime. If they are at home, try to arrange for them to see other children using a cellphone. Researchers Identify Marker that May Predict Whether Lung Cancer Likely to Spread Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, and the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. More than half of NSCLC patients die after developing metasta- ses. There are no tests currently that would allow doctors to identify patients where more aggres- sive therapy could reduce mortality. Researchers at Tulane University have identified a protein on tumor-derived extracellular vesicles that indicates if a NSCLC tumor is likely to metastasize, accord- ing to a new study in Science Advances. The protein could be used as a biomarker to develop a rapid, minimally invasive test to catch these cancers early when they are more treat- able, said study author Tony Hu, Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation at Tulane University School of Medicine. “The goal of any cancer diagnosis and treat- ment is to catch it early,” said Hu. “This informa- tion could help diagnose patients who are at high risk for having their cancer metastasize, and treat- ment could be tailored to account for that. Not all patients have the same type of tumor, and if you can target therapy to address a particular tumor, you can improve outcomes.” Most patients with NCSLC aren’t diagnosed until their primary tumor has metastasized to other parts of the body. However, even patients diagnosed with non-metastatic NSCLC tumors of the same stage can often have very different treatment outcomes. A marker that could iden- tify which patients are likely to develop metastatic NSCLC would aid in selecting those patients who should receive different treatment approaches to reduce their risk of metastasis and improve odds for long-term survival. However, no biomark- ers identified to date have adequate sensitiv- ity, specificity, or reproducibility for this purpose, and most require tumor samples that require inva- sive procedures that are not suitable for repeated analyses. All cells shed extracellular vesicles, small mem- brane particles that carry proteins, RNA, and other molecules. These vesicles can bind to and transfer their contents to specific cell types to change the behavior of these cells. Extracellular vesicles shed by cancer cells can alter the environ- ment of both adjacent and distant cells to estab- lish metastatic niches that promote the inva- sion and growth of circulating tumor cells. Study researchers evaluated proteins carried by extra- cellular vesicles shed by NSCLC cells to deter- mine which might serve as markers for metastatic NSCLC cells. Hu and his team identified a protein that was highly expressed on extracellular vesicles of metastatic, but not nonmetastatic NSCLC cells. This could predict which NSCLC patients were at increased risk for metastasis when its expression was analyzed on extracellular vesicles isolated