Implementing a mailed stool sample screening program in clinics providing care for an underserved Hispanic population.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Hispanics in the US. Despite this, Hispanics are being screened for CRC at a much lower rate than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Implementing mailed fecal immunochemical tests (FITs) is a cost-effective intervention for increasing CRC screening rates in vulnerable populations, such as Hispanic populations in border metroplexes. We aimed to describe the effect of introductory calls coupled with mailed in-home FIT kits on CRC screening completion in two federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in a US-Mexico border county. This was a prospective, pragmatic, two-arm intervention study with participants allocated to receive a FIT kit with a reminder call (usual care) or usual care preceded by an introductory call. The primary outcome was the percentage of patients who returned the FIT kits. Participants who returned to the FIT were primarily unemployed (54.4%), had less than a high school education (60.2%), lived in the US for at least 20 years (74.4%), and had poor self-reported health (54.4%). In addition, we observed a statistically significant increase in the absolute rate (4.5%, P = 0.003) of FITs returned when a mailed FIT kit was preceded by an introductory call compared with no initial call. This study demonstrated that adding an introductory phone call significantly improved the screening completion rate in a mailed-out CRC screening intervention in the US-Mexico border population.

Genetic response of Paspalum plicatulum to genome duplication.

Paspalum plicatulum is a perennial rhizomatous grass with natural diploid and polyploid cytotypes. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of sequence polymorphisms arising immediately after genome autoduplication in this species. Two mixoploid plants (4C and 7D) were previously obtained through colchicine treatment of seeds generated by open pollination of a diploid plant (H14-2x). Diploid and tetraploid sectors from both mixoploids were dissected to generate two ploidy series (4C-2x/4C-4x and 7D-2x/7D-4x). Molecular fingerprints were generated from the maternal plant H14-2x, both ploidy series (4C-2x/4C-4x and 7D-2x/7D-4x), and a tetraploid plant (C1) produced by selfing 7D-4x. Our results indicate that immediately after polyploidization P. plicatulum suffers genetic rearrangements affecting ~28-38 % of the genome. Band gain and loss were equally prevalent at a statistically significant level. At least 5.62 % of the genome experimented recurrent genetic variation in a non-random basis with a confidence of 94.88 %. A significant proportion of novel bands (36 out of 195; 18.4 %) was detected in the C1 tetraploid plant. Half of these bands were not amplified in either H14-2x or 7D-4x, while the remainders were present in H14-2x but absent in 7D-4x. Our results indicate the occurrence of a considerable number of genetic changes in P. plicatulum immediately after polyploidization, some of which were recurrently detected in different independent events. Moreover, we confirmed that after polyploidization, lost ancestral alleles were spontaneously recovered in further generations, a phenomenon previously reported by other research groups.