BACKGROUND Statutory State-based cancer registries are considered the 'gold standard' for researchers identifying cancer cases in Australia, but research using self-report or administrative health datasets (e.g. hospital records) may not have linkage to a Cancer Registry and need to identify cases. This study investigated the validity of administrative and self-reported data compared with recor...

BACKGROUND The COBE Spectra AutoPBSC collection set (AUTO-kit; CaridianBCT) is a popular dual-stage collection set for peripheral blood progenitor (PBPC) collection. Although the AUTO-kit is purportedly equivalent to the white blood cell (WBC) collection set (WBC-kit) for PBPC collection, improved CD34 yields after switching from the AUTO-kit to the WBC-kit were anecdotally observed, particular...

The reduction in skin blood flow (SkBF) with cold exposure is partly due to the reflex vasoconstrictor response from whole body cooling (WBC) and partly to the direct effects of local cooling (LC). Although these have been examined independently, little is known regarding their roles when acting together, as occurs in environmental cooling. We tested the hypothesis that the vasoconstrictor resp...

BACKGROUND Elevated white blood cell (WBC) count is associated with risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in cancer patients initiating chemotherapy. It is not known whether the risk of VTE by WBC count in cancer patients is causal or merely a consequence of the malignant disease. To address this question, we studied the association between WBC count, measured prior to cancer development, and ri...