Background/ aim: Post - traumatic growth (PTG) is defined as positive psychological changes following a challenging or traumatic life event. The purpose of this study is to define the predictors of PTG and death anxiety (DAN) in caregivers of cancer patients and evaluate the impact of DAN on PTG. Materials/ Methods: The caregivers of cancer patients were evaluated with structured questionnaires, including validated PTG scale and Templer death anxiety scale. Results: In 3 different cancer centers, 426 participants were evaluated. In multivariate analysis of factors associated with PTG, a high DAN score was the only parameter associated with high PTG scores. (OR: 1.6, CI (95%) 1.02?2.5, p = 0.03). In multivariate analysis of factors associated with DAN, the female gender was the only risk factor for high DAN scores. (OR: 1.6, CI(95%) 1.1?2.8, p = 0.049). There was a positive correlation between PTG and DAN scores (r = 0.15, p = 0.001). Higher DAN scores were associated with positive impacts on self - perception (37.0 vs 35.0, p = 0.02), philosophy of life (16.0 vs 13.0, p = 0.035) and changes in relationship (16.0 vs 14.0, p = 0.01) Conclusions: It is the first report regarding the association between DAN and PTG. We found a positive impact of death anxiety on psychological changes in caregivers of cancer patients.

Background: Low serum sodium affects cancer prognosis, but its impact on immunotherapy is unclear. Objective: Assessing the association of pre- and post-ICI treatment sodium levels with survival. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients receiving ICI in January 2012-December 2023, collecting serum sodium levels at treatment initiation and 4 weeks post-ICI, with overall survival (OS) as the primary outcome. Results: Low sodium was observed in 125 and 119 patients pre-and post-treatment respectively. Pre-ICI and post-ICI low sodium correlated with decreased OS [10.6 vs. 22.9 months (p = 0.001) and 11.6 vs. 27.2 months (p = 0.009)]. Multivariate analysis identified pre-ICI low sodium [HR: 1.685; 95% CI: 1.050-2.705; p = 0.031] as an independent risk factor for worse OS. Conclusion: Low baseline serum sodium was an independent risk factor for poor OS in patients treated with ICIs.

Crizotinib is a multikinase inhibitor, effective in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epidermal transition (MET) alterations. Although small prospective studies showed efficacy and safety of crizotinib in NSCLC with MET alterations, there is limited real-life data. Aim of this study is to investigate real-life efficacy and safety of crizotinib in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations. This was a retrospective, multicenter (17 centers) study of Turkish Oncology Group. Patients’ demographic, histological data, treatment, response rates, survival outcomes, and toxicity data were collected. Outcomes were presented for the study population and compared between MET alteration types. Total of 62 patients were included with a median age of 58.5 (range, 26–78). Major histological type was adenocarcinoma, and 3 patients (4.8%) had sarcomatoid component. The most common MET analyzing method was next generation sequencing (90.3%). MET amplification and mutation frequencies were 53.2% (n = 33) and 46.8% (n = 29), respectively. Overall response rate and disease control rate were 56.5% and 74.2% in whole study population, respectively. Median progression free survival (PFS) was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.8–10.5), and median overall survival (OS) was 18.7 months (95% CI: 13.7–23.7), regardless of treatment line. Median PFS was 6.1 months (95% CI: 5.6–6.4) for patients with MET amplification, whereas 14.3 months (95% CI: 6.7–21.7) for patients with MET mutation (P = .217). Median PFS was significantly longer in patients who have never smoked (P = .040), have good performance score (P < .001), and responded to the treatment (P < .001). OS was significantly longer in patients with MET mutation (25.6 months, 95% CI: 15.9–35.3) compared to the patients with MET amplification (11.0 months; 95% CI: 5.2–16.8) (P = .049). In never-smokers, median OS was longer than smoker patients (25.6 months [95% CI: 11.8–39.3] vs 16.5 months [95% CI: 9.3–23.6]; P = .049). The most common adverse effects were fatigue (50%), peripheral edema (21%), nausea (29%) and diarrhea (19.4%). Grade 3 or 4 adverse effects were observed in 6.5% of the patients. This real-life data confirms efficacy and safety of crizotinib in the treatment of advanced NSCLC harboring MET alteration.

Aim: Using circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) instead of historical clinicopathological factors to select patients for adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) may reduce inappropriate therapy. Material & methods: M... Colon cancer is one of the most common cancer all over the world. Patients with early-stage disease are treated with surgery. However, some of these patients have a cancer recurrence risk because o...