Lymph node status is one prognostic factor in head and neck cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR) in head and neck cancer patients who received surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy. From May 1991 to December 2012, a total of 117 head and neck cancer patients who received surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy were analyzed. The primary sites were oral cavity (93), oropharynx (13), hypopharynx (6), and larynx (5). All patients had pathologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma and 63 patients had neck lymph nodes metastasis. LNR was calculated for each patient. The endpoints were overall survival (OS), local failure-free survival (LFFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS). The median follow up time was 36 months, with a range from 3.4 to 222 months. The 3-year rates of OS, LFFS, and DMFS were 59.7, 70.3, and 81.8 %, respectively. The median value of LNR for lymph nodes positive patients was 0.1. In univariate analysis, patients with an LNR value less than 0.1 had better 3-year OS (67.0 % vs.41.0 %, p = 0.004), 3-year LFFS (76.1 % vs. 54.9 %, p = 0.015) and 3-year DMFS (87.2 % vs. 66.4 %, p = 0.06). Multivariate analysis revealed that LNR was an independent prognostic factor for OS (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.92; 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 1.367–6.242; p = 0.006) and LFFS (HR = 4.12; 95 % CI = 1.604–10.59; p = 0.003). LNR is an important prognosis factor for OS and LFFS in head and neck cancer patients.

To develop a tool for predicting pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (neoCRT) in patients with esophageal cancer by combining inflammatory status and tumor glucose metabolic activity. This study included 127 patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer who had received neoCRT followed by esophagectomy from 2007 to 2016. We collected their neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and standardized uptake value (SUV) obtained from fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET/CT) before and after neoCRT. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify potential predictive factors for pCR. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of predictors were calculated. Between pCR and non-pCR groups, there were no statistically significant differences in patient characteristics, such as sex, age, site, and clinical T/N stage. Multivariate analyses identified four independent predictors for pCR, including pre-OP NLR < 5.4 [OR 11.179; 95% CI 8.385–13.495; p = 0.003], NLR change (ΔNLR) < 3 [OR 4.891; 95% CI 2.274–9.180; p = 0.005], changes in SUV (ΔSUV) > 7.2 [OR 3.033; 95% CI 1.354–6.791; p = 0.007], and SUV changes ratio (ΔSUV ratio) > 58% [OR 3.585; 95% CI 1.576–8.152; p = 0.002]. ΔNLR had the highest accuracy and NPV (84.3% and 90.3%, respectively). Combined factors of ΔNLR < 3 and ΔSUV ratio > 58% had the best PPV for pCR (84.8%). Inflammatory status (ΔNLR) and tumor glucose metabolic activity (ΔSUV ratio), when considered together, constitute a promising low-invasive tool with high efficacy for prediction of treatment response before surgery.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among women. However, there remains no consensus in current literature on the incidence of autoimmune diseases among breast cancer patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risks of major autoimmune diseases (MAD) including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and dermatomyositis (DMtis)/polymyositis (PM) in female breast cancer patients. Using the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) records from 2003 to 2013, we identified newly-diagnosed female breast cancer patients and randomly selected females without breast cancer in the period 2007 to 2013 into a control group. We matched the two cohorts using a 1:4 ratio based on age, and the year of index date for comparison of the risk of major autoimmune diseases. We estimated and compared the relative risks of autoimmune diseases in female breast cancer patients and females without breast cancer. A total of 54,311 females with breast cancer and 217,244 matched females without breast cancer were included in this study. For SLE, the incidence rates were 2.3 (breast cancer group) vs. 10.0 (control group) per 100,000 women years; for RA rates were 19.3 (breast cancer group) vs. 42.7 (control group) per 100,000 women years; and for SS rates were 20.5 (breast cancer group) vs. 38.2 (control group) per 100,000 women years. After adjusting for potential confounders, the hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for female breast cancer patients vs. control group were 0.04 (0.01–0.24) for SLE; 0.03 (0.02–0.04) for RA; and 0.21 (0.09–0.48) for SS. Female breast cancer patients had lower risks of SLE, RA and SS when compared to female individuals without breast cancer. However, there was no significant difference in the risk of developing DMtis/PM between both groups.

Background and objectives: Among patients with pathologically proven T2N0 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), a notable amount of patients still die from tumor recurrence although they have radical surgery for early stage cancers. In literature, the prognostic indicators of this specific disease entity were rarely reported. This study aims at analyzing the prognostic factors of T2N0 OSCC patients and discussing possible managements to improve the survival. Materials and Methods: From January 2012 to December 2017, the data of 166 pathologically proven T2N0 oral cancer patients proved by radical surgery were retrospectively collected. The clinical and pathologic factors including age, gender, tumor differentiation grade, perineural invasion (PNI), angiolymphatic invasion (ALI), margin status, and adjuvant therapy were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis to determine their association with disease-specific survival (DSS), and disease-free survival (DFS), which were calculated by Kaplan–Meier method. Results: After median follow up time of 43.5 months, overall 3-year rates of DSS and DFS were 86.1% and 80.1% respectively for our 166 patients. Univariate analysis showed that the 3-year DSS of 90.8% for PNI negative patients was significantly better than DSS of 57.0% for PNI positive patients (p = 0.0006). The 3-year DFS of 84.2% for PNI negative patients was also significantly better than DFS of 54.6% for PNI positive patients (p = 0.001). Further multivariate analysis revealed PNI was the only independent prognostic factor associated with both DSS (Hazard Ratio (HR) = 5.02; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.99–12.6; p = 0.001), and DFS (HR = 3.92; 95% CI = 1.65–9.32; p = 0.002). Nearly 10% (16) of the 166 patients had adverse pathologic feature of PNI only. In the 11 patients without adjuvant therapy, 5 patients died from OSCC. No patients had recurrence or mortality after they received adjuvant therapy with chemotherapy ± radiotherapy. Conclusion: PNI was an independent prognostic factor for T2N0 oral cancer patients. Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy may benefit the survival of this specific disease entity, but further investigations are needed to elucidate the optimal regimen.