Background: Telemedicine is seen as a savior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials & methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted with cancer patients who were interviewed...

Objectives: The present study evaluates the clinical outcomes of children, adolescents and adults with Ewing sarcoma and identifies the prognostic factors. Methods: Included in the study were 222 pediatric and adult patients diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma (EwS) who were followed up between 1992 and 2019, and whose data were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The median age of 131 male and 91 female patients included in the study was 13 (1–64). The median follow-up duration of the survivors was 79 months (range, 11–182 months). The 3-year EFS rate of the 222 patients was 34 % (Confidence Interval (CI) (0.158–0.242 %) and the OS rate was 54 % (CI, 0.289–0.590 %). For the non-metastatic patients, the 3-year EFS rate was 47 % and the OS was 68 %, while for the metastatic patients the 3-year EFS rate was 13 % and the OS was 30 %. Of the patient sample, 81 (36, 5 %) survived, of whom 72 were continuously free of disease while the disease persisted in nine, and three developed a second neoplasm (2 of whom subsequently died while one survived disease-free). Of the 129 patients who relapsed with metastases and/or local recurrence, eight survived and are disease-free, nine are alive with uncontrolled disease; five were lost to follow-up and 107 died. Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest metastatic disease at presentation and positive margins after surgery to be of prognostic significance in ES. Disruptions in aggressive local treatments may reduce the chances of cure in EwS.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the roles of inflammatory parameters, including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR), and C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR), in predicting disease recurrence in patients with stage IIA (T3N0M0) high microsatellite instability and microsatellite-stable colon cancer who had no risk factors associated with relapse. Materials and methods: We evaluated 155 patients with colon cancer followed in 3 hospitals in Turkey between February 2009 and March 2020. These patients had stage IIA disease and had no risk factors associated with relapse. None of the patients received adjuvant chemotherapy. NLR, PLR, LMR, and CAR parameters were retrospectively obtained from laboratory results at the time of diagnosis, and their associations with disease recurrence were assessed. Results: Over a median follow-up period of 38 months (range: 4–98 months), 11 of the 155 patients experienced relapse or developed metastases. Multivariate Cox analyses revealed that NLRs of ≥3.12 (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.041, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.048–0.826, p = 0.006) and CARs of ≥0.027 (HR: 0.199, 95% CI: 0.004–0.404, p = 0.026) were independent prognostic markers predicting relapse. The median 5-year recurrence-free survival rate of patients with NLRs of ≥3.12 at the time of diagnosis was 88.0%; this rate was 100% in patients with NLRs of <3.12 (p < 0.001). Similarly, the median 5-year recurrence-free survival rate of patients with CARs of ≥0.027 at the time of diagnosis was 84.7%; this rate was 95.7% in patients with CARs of <0.027 (p = 0.016). Conclusion: In this study, NLR and CAR were found to be independent prognostic markers predicting disease recurrence in patients with stage IIA colon cancer who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy due to low clinical risk.

Advanced pancreatic cancer (APC) is a highly lethal malignancy which has one of the worst treatment outcomes. Modified (m)FOLFIRINOX is an intense but a proven treatment approach with a survival benefit for APC. Although mFOLFIRINOX demonstrated survival benefit compared with gemcitabine monotherapy, the standard treatment in previous years, toxicity is a difficult aspect of this treatment. A retrospective analysis of patients referred to Medical Oncology Clinics of Ankara Oncology Research and Training Hospital with the diagnosis of inoperable locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer and treated with mFOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine monotheraphy from March 2013 to April 2018 was performed. Forty three patients and 37 patients were included in mFOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine groups, respectively. The mean age of the patients was 53.74 years (range: 32–69) and 65,7 years (range: 47–82) for mFOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine, respectively (95% CI, p < 0.001). All patients, except one, had ECOG performance status of 0 or 1 in mFOLFIRINOX group. In contrast, nine patients had ECOG performance status of 2 in the gemcitabine group (95% CI, p = 0.002). When the patients were evaluated for response, 11 (25.6%) and 6 (16.2%) had partial remission with mFOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine, respectively. Median PFS and OS was 5,73 (95% CI, 2,57-8,90) months and 8.77 (95% CI, 6.54–10.99) months with mFOLFIRINOX and 2,77 (95% CI, 2,29-3,24) months and 5.80 (95% CI, 3.08–7.92) months with gemcitabine, respectively. mFOLFIRINOX regimen was more toxic than gemcitabine regimen. The incidences of all-grade neutropenia, neuropathy, and emesis were more prominent in the mFOLFIRINOX group. mFOLFIRINOX is a difficult regimen for both patients and physicians with significant toxicity with a greater survival benefit. The survival benefit was modest in this real-life experience. Patient selection bias and small sample size of this retrospective study should be considered.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the cause of death in patients who died within 30 days after the first dose of immunotherapy. Methods: The data of 1432 patients treated with immu...

Introduction: The current study aims to evaluate the OX40, TIM-3, LAG-3, and PD-L1 targeted pathways in the regulation of T-cell activity in sarcoma patients to determine their relationship with overall survival (OS). Method: This study included one hundred and eleven patients with bone and soft tissue sarcoma diagnosed in two centers between 2010 and 2020. OX40, LAG-3, TIM-3 and PD-L1 expression levels were evaluated immunohistochemically from pathology preparations. Results: PD-L1 staining was detected in tumor cells, OX40, LAG-3, TIM-3 staining was detected in inflammatory cells in tumor tissue. In univariate analysis, no significant relationship was found between OX40, TIM-3, LAG-3, and PD-L1 staining and overall survival (respectively: p = 0.12, p = 0.49, p = 0.31, p = 0.95). When grade and stage at diagnosis, which were found to be significant in univariate analysis, along with OX-40, TIM-3, LAG-3, and PD-L1, were evaluated in multivariate analysis, a positive effect of OX-40 staining on overall survival was determined (p = 0.009). Considering the correlation between PDL-1 and OX40, TIM-3, and LAG-3 staining, a significant positive correlation was found between PDL-1 and TIM-3 and LAG-3 staining (respectively; p = 0.002, p = 0.001). Conclusions: There was no significant relationship between the PDL-1 staining percentage of tumor cells and OX40, TIM-3, and LAG-3 staining in inflammatory cells with the OS of sarcoma patients. However, detecting a significant positive correlation between PDL-1 staining and TIM-3 and LAG-3 staining also holds promise for finding effective targetable combination therapies that can prolong survival in sarcoma patients in the future.