MDS Alert

CMS has completed its MDS 3.0 train-the-trainer sessions. In

March, the agency conducted training for state representatives, includingstate RAI coordinators. The agency has posted Q&As from those sessions on its Web site at www.cms.gov/NursingHomeQualityInits/Downloads/MDS30QandA.pdf. For a sampling of the Q&As, see the "What Do You Think" feature in this issue.

In April, CMS conducted intensive sessions for stakeholders, including industry association representatives and providers. The training was a "well-received success," said CMS'Mary Pratt in the April 22 SNF/ LTC Open Door Forum. MDS nurse Nemcy Cavite Duran, CRNAC, who attended the April training, found the discussion to be "comprehensive" and the speakers "energetic." She also found the training materials provided to be excellent.

Be on the lookout: Audiovisual taping of the April training will be available on the CMS Web site once editing has been finished, Pratt relayed. In addition, CMS is working hard to update the RAI User's Manual by the end of May and will be posting revised sections of Chapter 3 as they become available. A number of training tools, such as interview videos for the pertinent sections of the MDS, will also be posted.

You can receive notice of the training materials and RAI manual update through the SNF/LTC Open Door Forum list serve. To sign up, if you haven't already, go to https://subscriptions.cms.hhs.gov/service/subscribe.html?code=USCMS_515.

Research on the breast cancer front includes surprising news about an old drug and the adventof an innovative clinical trial. Researchers have found that beta blockers appear to have a positive impact on breast cancer outcomes. A study at Nottingham's Breast Institute showed that the drugs, which many people take for hypertension, could help prevent breast cancer metastasis, reported one of the study's researchers at the recent seventh European Breast Cancer Conference in Barcelona.

The research study, which included 466 cancer patients, found that the patients on beta blockers showed a 71 percent reduced risk of death from breast cancer during the study compared to those who were not in the drug, according to a HealthDay news article posted on Medline Plus (www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_96905.html). The study also revealed a 57 percent reduction in risk of getting a secondary cancer.

Researchers surmise the drugs prevent cancer-cell stimulation by stress hormones, according to the article. "Beta-blocker drugs compete with stress hormones and bind to the same target receptors [on a cellular level], but unlike stress hormones, do not activate cancer cells," said one of the researchers, Dr.Des Powe, in the article. Powe is a senior healthcare research scientist at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust, in Nottingham, England.

Meantime, patients with aggressive breast cancer may have some new treatment options in the not-so-distant future. The Biomarkers Consortium, a collaboration between federal health agencies and large pharmaceutical companies, recently announced the launch of a clinical trial aimed at testing targeted therapies for fast-growing breast cancers. "The I-SPY 2 trial will employ a groundbreaking clinical trial model that uses genetic or biological markers (biomarkers) from individual patients' tumors to screen promising new treatments," states a release on the trial (for more information, go to ispy2.org/).

If you're looking for a baseline standard-of-care exercise program for your post breast-cancer lymphedema patients, you're in luck. A new study could provide just that for the estimated 20 percent of patients with breast cancer who develop breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL), according to a press release from the American Occupational Therapy Association. The research, conducted by University of Pittsburgh, revealed that the Breast Cancer Recovery Program© (BCRP) could work as a model exercise program in treating BCRL. In a study of 32 women with BCRL, researchers found that the BCRP significantly reduced swelling caused by arm lymphedema, increased arm and shoulder movement, promoted weight loss, and improved both mood and quality of life. (For more information, go to www.breastcancerrelatedlymphedema.org/).