The incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) is lower in Asian populations than in Western populations. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the annual age- and sex-adjusted incidence (ASR) of VTE from 2009 to 2013 in South Korea. In addition, annual change in the pattern of VTE treatment during the study period was estimated because a new direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) had become available and was covered by health insurance in Korea beginning in January 2013. VTE cases from 2009 to 2013 were retrospectively identified based on both diagnostic and medication codes of anticoagulants used for initial treatment using the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) databases. The incidence of VTE increased yearly. It was significantly higher in the older population than in the younger population, and it was higher in females than in males. In 2009, ASRs of VTE, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism were 21.3, 8.1, and 13.2 cases per 100,000 individuals, respectively in 2009. These increased to 29.2, 12.7, and 16.6 cases per 100,000, respectively, in 2013. Prescription rates of warfarin and low-molecular–weight heparin decreased with the introduction of a new anticoagulant in 2013. The proportion of subjects who underwent mechanical procedures decreased annually. The ASR of VTE in Korea continuously increased from 2009 to 2013, reflecting an increased awareness and detection of VTE as well as improved survival of patients with cancer and other morbidities. Following its introduction, DOAC rapidly replaced other anticoagulants for the treatment of VTE.

Significance: Understanding the working mechanism of a chemotherapy drug is a critical step toward achieving the patient-specific treatment strategy. Decitabine is an FDA-approved drug being used to treat myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here, we employed an image-based screening platform to investigate the downstream factors of decitabine. We find that an RNA-binding protein Staufen1 (Stau1) is required for decitabine-mediated cancer cell death. We show that Stau1 stabilizes endogenous retrovirus RNAs induced by decitabine and transforms cells into the viral mimicry state. Indeed, MDS/AML patients with lower Stau1 expression show inferior response to decitabine. Our study unravels stabilization of key regulatory RNAs by Stau1 and suggests its potential use to predict decitabine-mediated therapy outcomes in clinics.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of metabolic tumor volume (MTV) measured by ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with rituximab-containing immunochemotherapy. Patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL who underwent pre-treatment torso FDG-PET/CT scan taken within 10 days before treatment were included. MTV was defined as the volume of hypermetabolic tissue with a standardized uptake value (SUV) greater than a threshold value of 2.5 and calculated using volume viewer software. Association of MTV with patient characteristics and survival were compared. A total of 96 patients were evaluated. During a median follow-up period of 27.8 months, 3-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival was 69.5 % and 72.9 %, respectively. The Ann Arbor staging showed a limitation of prognosis because there was no difference of EFS between patients with Ann Arbor stage II and those with stage III. On the contrary, among patients with Ann Arbor stage II or III disease (n = 53), the higher MTV group showed significantly inferior EFS compared with the lower MTV group. In the current study, we identified the pre-treatment MTV measured by FDG-PET/CT as a potential predictor of survival in patients with DLBCL treated with rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (R-CHOP), at least in Ann Arbor stage II and III disease.

Background: Vitamin C suppresses leukaemogenesis by modulating Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase (TET) activity. However, its beneficial effect in the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) remains controversial. In this study, we aimed to identify a potential predictive biomarker for vitamin C treatment in AML. Methods: Gene expression patterns and their relevance to the survival of AML patients were analysed with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) database cases. In vitro experiments were performed on AML cell lines, a SLC2A3-knockdown cell line and patient-derived primary AML cells. Results: SLC2A3 expression was significantly decreased in leukaemic blast cells. Below-median SLC2A3 expression was associated with poor overall survival. Low SLC2A3 expression was associated with less effective demethylation, and a diminished vitamin C effect in the AML and lymphoma cell lines. SLC2A3 knockdown in the KG-1 cell line decreased the response of vitamin C. In patient-derived primary AML cells, vitamin C only restored TET2 activity when SLC2A3 was expressed. Conclusion: SLC2A3 could be used as a potential biomarker to predict the effect of vitamin C treatment in AML.

This study aimed to elucidate patterns of disease transformation to secondary myelofibrosis (SMF) or secondary acute myeloid leukemia (SAML) and the development of second primary malignancies in South Korean patients with BCR-ABL1–negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). By using nationwide public health care insurance claims data, we identified and analyzed 7454 patients with MPNs who were newly diagnosed with essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), or primary myelofibrosis (PMF) from 2008 to 2016 and used the data to appropriately trace the disease course. Transformation to SMF or SAML was rare in patients with ET and PV, but patients with PMF had an 8-year cumulative incidence of SAML of 21.4%. Patients with PV or ET had an 8-year cumulative incidence of second primary solid tumors of ∼14%. Patients with MPNs had a 2 times higher risk of developing second primary solid tumors than that of the general South Korean population. Compared with patients with PMF, patients with SMF had a similar overall survival with a lower risk of developing SAML. The use of ruxolitinib did not increase the risk of developing B-cell lymphoma over a median follow-up period of 16.2 months. Disease transformation to SMF or SAML was rare in patients with ET or PV, but SAML was common in patients with PMF. South Korean patients with MPNs had a significantly higher risk of developing second primary solid tumors than that of the general population, particularly for kidney, prostate, brain, liver, and lung cancers.