Oxaliplatin (1, 2-diamminocyclohexaneoxalato-platinum) is a novel platin analog, which is widely used in gastrointestinal malignancies. Platinum analogs damage cellular deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) by leading covalent bifunctional DNA adducts with cellular DNA. Major side effects of oxaliplatin are neurotoxicity (peripheral neuropathy), myelosuppression with moderate thrombocytopenia and gastrointestinal toxicity (diarrhea). Thrombocytopenia might be related to myelosuppression and/or drug-induced immune thrombocytopenia (DIIT). In here, oxaliplatin-induced thrombocytopenia is discussed with review of the literature.

Aim: To evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of the CoronaVac vaccine in patients with cancer receiving active systemic therapy. Methods: This multicenter, prospective, observational study was co... Tweetable abstract Immunogenicity developed with CoronaVac in 25 (59.5%) of 42 patients who received at least one cytotoxic drug and in all patients (n = 5) who received monoclonal antibody or immu...

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil–platelet score (NPS) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) as proinflammatory markers in metastatic pancreas cancer (MPC). Material and methods: A total of 146 MPC patients followed up at our center were evaluated retrospectively for clinicopathological characteristics and hematological ratios (NLR, PLR, NPS and PNI). PNI was calculated as (10 × serum albumin [g/dL]) + (0.005 × peripheral lymphocyte count [per mm³]). Log rank and Cox regression analysis were used. Results: Median age was 53 years (range: 22–78) with male predominance (73.3%). Liver (94.7%) was the most common site for metastasis. Half (53.4%) of the patients had ECOG-PS <2; 18% had cholestasis. Palliative chemotherapy predominantly gemcitabine was given to 86.3% of the patients. Clinical benefit rate was 58.2% and objective response rate (ORR) was 23%. Median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were 6.3 months (95% CI: 5.2–7.8) and 4.9 months (95% CI: 3.6-6.1). Age (p = .003), ECOG-PS (p = .0001), palliative chemotherapy (p = .002), cholestasis (p = .001) and NLR (p = .001) were statistically significant but PLR (p = .062), NPS (p = .86) and PNI (p = .51) were not significant in univariate analysis. Age (HR 1.026, 95% CI: 1.007–1.045, p = .007), ECOG-PS (HR 0.299, 95% CI: 0.202–0.443, p = .0001), cholestasis (HR 0.541, 95% CI: 0.325–0.901, p = .01) and NLR (HR 1.076, 95% CI: 1.025–1.130, p = .003) were significant prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Basal high NLR (>3), advanced age (>60 years), poor ECOG-PS (>2) and cholestasis were independent poor prognostic factors in MPC. However, PNI, NPS and PLR had no prognostic significance (p = .51, p = .86 and p = .062, respectively).

Background/Aims: The association between platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and survival with response rates were evaluated in metastatic gastric cancer (MGC). Patients and Methods: MGC patients on firstline modified docetaxel/cisplatinum/5-fluorourasil [mDCF; docetaxel 60 mg/m² (days 1–5), cisplatin 60 mg/m² (day 1), 5FU 600 mg/m² (days 1–5), q3w] were evaluated retrospectively. The cutoff values were 160 for PLR and 2.5 for NLR. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated for group I (PLR >160), group II (PLR ≤ 160), group III (NLR ≥ 2.5), group IV (NLR < 2.5), group V (PLR > 160 and NLR ≥ 2.5), group VI (PLR ≤ 160 and NLR 160 and NLR < 2.5) and VIIb (PLR ≤160 and NLR ≥ 2.5)]. Results: One hundred and nine MGC patients were evaluated for basal hematological parameters and survival analysis, retrospectively. Most of the patients were male in their fifties with grade III adenocarcinoma (62.9%) and liver metastasis (46.7%). Patients with PLR > 160 and/or NLR ≥ 2.5 had significantly shorter PFS and OS (P = 0.04, 0.01, 0.019, and P = 0.003, 0.002, 0.000, respectively). Conclusion: High PLR (> 160) and/or NLR (≥ 2.5) seem to be poor prognostic factors in MGC.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in cases with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) in different lines of treatment.Retrospective analysis o...

Antimetabolites may cause severe toxicity and even toxic death in cancer patients. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between antimetabolite toxicity and pharmacogenetics in patients with severe clinical toxicity or alanine transaminase (ALT) elevation after fluorouracil (5FU), capecitabine or methotrexate administration. Cancer patients with severe antimetabolite toxicity were evaluated for methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene C667T, thymidilate synthase (TS) gene 5' UTR variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR), dihydroprymidine dehydrogenase (DPYD) gene IVS14+1G/A, Xeroderma pigmentosum (XPD) gene Lys751Gln and X-ray repair cross-complementing group 1 (XRCC1) gene Arg399Gln polymorphisms. Eighteen patients were enrolled, with a male/female ratio of 0.8. They had osteosarcoma in methotrexate group (n=7), gastrointestinal malignancies in 5FU group (n=9) and breast cancer in the capecitabine group (n=2). Mucositis and dermatitis occurred in all groups, together with ALT elevation in the methotrexate group and 2 toxic deaths were encountered. DPYD, TS, MTHFR, XPD and XRCC1 gene polymorphism rare allele frequencies were observed to be higher than in the general population. Pharmacogenetics might contribute to tailored therapy.