To evaluate ICIs related dry eye and dry mouth in nivolumab therapy, 24 patients receiving nivolumab (group 1), 30 patients in remission without treatment for 6 months (group 2), 30 healthy participants (group 3) were cross-sectionally examined. Schirmer’s 1, 2, TSH blood tests, serological analysis, salivary flow scintigraphy and minor-salivary gland biopsy were performed. Schirmer’s tests were performed with anesthetic (1) and without anesthetic (2). Schirmer’s scores were lower in group 1 with more frequent reduced tear production (p < 0.001). TSH levels negatively correlated with Schirmer’s scores. Functional insufficiency was detected by salivary flow scintigraphy in 7 out of 10 patients with Schirmer's test positivity. In Schirmer’s positive patients, lymphocytic sialadenitis was confirmed in 4 patients (focus score >1) and CD4 T lymphocyte precipitation was observed in 6 patients. Nivolumab therapy may be associated with ICIs related immune sicca.
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.
With the development and widely use of HER2 targeted therapies, HER2 expressing metastatic breast cancer have no longer dismal prognosis as once expected. The combination of HER2 targeted therapies with chemotherapatic agents prolongs overall survival. Pertuzumab is a new monoclonal antibody molecule that binds to the extracellular portion of HER2 and works by inhibiting homo- and heterodimerization. The aim of this study is to document the real life data of toxicities seen in metastatic breast cancer patients treated with first line trastuzumab-pertuzumab combination therapy. A retrospective review of 26 cases from the medical oncology patient registry was conducted to include the dates October 2016 through December 2017. The number of cycles of treatment and doses, adverse events, dose changes and course delays, reasons for treatment change and types of second line treatments are noted. The imaging and laboratory test results were obtained from the electronic registration system. The cumulative toxicity incidence was accepted as the primary endpoint. The median age of the 26 cases was 54 years. The median cycle number of pertuzumab and docetaxel treatments were 9 and 7, respectively and the median duration of pertuzumab therapy was 6.75 months. As of the date of last follow-up, 80.7% of the cases were still under treatment. There was a total of 6 cases of delay in treatment, of which five were due to neutropenia, while in one case the cause was diarrhea. When the adverse events were examined, at least one side effect (excluding alopecia) was observed in 16 patients and 7 cases had no toxicity except alopecia. In terms of constitutional symptoms, eight of the 19 patients had grade 1 fatique, one case had itching, and three patients had asthenia. Hematologic toxicity was seen in twelve cases and all had at least grade 1 leukopenia. Grade 3-4 febrile neutropenia occurred only in one case. Left ventriculer ejection fraction was measured stable for all of the cases, none of them experienced any significant decrease. According to the results of this retrospective analysis, the use of pertuzumab-trastuzumab-docetaxel in the first line treatment of HER2 expressing metastatic breast cancer had good safety profile and had positive clinical results and paralleled with the results of the pivotal study.
We evaluated the effect of the branch of the cancer specialist (medical oncologist versus surgical oncologist) who initially examines a patient on treatment delay. The objective was to evaluate whether surgical oncology and medical oncology clinics, which have different operating styles, impact the timeliness of treatment. Additionally, we investigated the prognostic impact of the clinical and treatment-related factors in patients with esophageal cancer treated at our center. This was a retrospective single-center study. The prognostic impact of resection type (R0 or R1-2), multimodal treatment, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), perineural invasion (PNI), lymph node metastases, cachexia at the time of diagnosis, smoking, and diagnostic application of endoscopic ultrasound was evaluated. Patients were stratified according to whether the orientation and management processes were based on a multimodal approach and whether they were first examined by a surgical oncologist or a medical oncologist for diagnostic workup and management. The impact of the management approach on progression-free survival (PFS) was evaluated. Use of a multimodal approach in patients with esophageal cancer was associated with longer PFS (26.7 vs 13.9 months, p = 0.002). LVI and cachexia were associated with shorter PFS (16.1 vs 29.4 months, p = 0.044 and 14.6 vs 29.0, p = 0.019, respectively). The first appointment of the patients in the medical oncology department was associated with shorter treatment delay (54 [IQR: 36-71] vs 31 [IQR: 24-48] days, p < 0.001). Our findings suggest that the first appointment of patients in the medical oncology department may lead to a more systematic workup and treatment progress. We believe that systematic use of multimodal approaches for esophageal cancer may confer prognostic benefits.