Universal germline testing in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) with a multigene panel can detect various hereditary cancer syndromes. This study was performed to understand how to choose a ...testing panel and whether the result would affect clinical management.
We prospectively enrolled 486 eligible patients with CRC, including all patients with CRC diagnosed under age 70 years and patients with CRC diagnosed over 70 years with hereditary risk features between November 2017 and January 2018. All participants received germline testing for various hereditary cancer syndromes.
The prevalence of germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in cancer susceptibility genes was 7.8% (38/486), including 25 PVs in genes with high-risk CRC susceptibility (the minimal testing set) and 13 PVs in genes with moderate-risk CRC susceptibility or increased cancer risk other than CRC (the additional testing set). All the clinically relevant PVs were found in patients diagnosed under age 70 years. Among them, 11 patients would not have been diagnosed if testing reserved to present guidelines. Most (36/38) of the patients with PVs benefited from enhanced surveillance and tailored treatment. PVs in genes from the minimal testing set were found in all age groups, while patients carried PVs in genes from the additional testing set were older than 40 years.
Universal germline testing for cancer susceptibility genes should be recommended among all patients with CRC diagnosed under age 70 years. A broad panel including genes from the additional testing set might be considered for patients with CRC older than 40 years to clarify inheritance risks.
NCT03365986.
Background and Objectives Adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II colon cancer remains controversial but may be considered for patients with high-risk features. Recent studies have shown that elevated ...neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a worse prognostic factor and a predictor of response to chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether NLR predicts risk of recurrence in patients with stage IIA colon cancer undergoing curative resection without adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 141 consecutive patients with stage IIA colon cancer treated with curative surgery alone from 2002 to 2006. NLR, as well as demographics, clinical, histopathologic, and laboratory data were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to identify prognostic factors associated with recurrent-free survival (RFS). Results Cox's regression analysis demonstrated that elevated NLR (>4) (hazard ratio, 4.88; P < 0.01) and less lymph node sampling (<15 lymph nodes; hazard ratio, 3.80; P < 0.05) were adverse prognostic factors for RFS. The 5-year RFS was 91.4% (95% CI, 88.6-94.2%) for patients with normal NLR and 63.8% (51.1-76.3%) for patients with elevated NLR. The 5-year RFS for patients with 0, 1, and 2 of the identified risk factors was 95.1%, 87.4%, and 33.3%, respectively (P < 0.001). Conclusions Elevated preoperative NLR is an independent predictor of worse RFS for patients with stage IIA colon cancer and a potential biomarker to identify candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy.
Neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy has shown encouraging efficacy in patients with deficient DNA mismatch repair (dMMR)/microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), which ...suggests its potential as a curative-intent therapy and a promising treatment option for organ preservation. We aimed to investigate the long-term outcomes of patients with dMMR/MSI-H LARC who experienced clinical complete response (cCR) after anti-PD-1 therapy.
We retrospectively analyzed patients with dMMR/MSI-H LARC who achieved cCR and received nonoperative management following neoadjuvant anti-PD-1-based treatment from 4 Chinese medical centers. Patients were followed up for at least 1 year after they achieved cCR, their clinical data were collected, and survival outcomes were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method.
A total of 24 patients who achieved cCR and received nonoperative management from March 2018 to May 2022 were included, with a median age of 51.0 years (range, 19.0-77.0 years). The median treatment course to reach cCR was 6.0 (range, 1.0-12.0). Fifteen patients (62.5%) continued their treatments after experiencing cCR, and the median treatment course was 17.0 (range, 3.0-36.0). No local regrowth or distant metastasis was observed in a median follow-up time of 29.1 months (range, 12.6-48.5 months) after cCR. The 3-year disease-free and overall survivals were both 100%.
Patients with dMMR/MSI-H locally advanced or low-lying rectal cancer who achieved cCR following anti-PD-1-based therapy had promising long-term outcomes. A prospective clinical trial with a larger sample size is required to further validate these findings.
Background: Although PD-1 blockade has significantly improved the survival of metastatic colorectal cancer with DNA Mismatch Repair-Deficient/Microsatellite Instability-High (MSI-H), the data on ...neoadjuvant setting is limited.
Methods: In this retrospective study, we enrolled eight patients with advanced MSI-H colorectal cancer from three hospitals. Four patients are locally advanced and four are metastatic. All the patients received at least two doses of PD-1 antibody with or without chemotherapy as neoadjuvant therapy. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the short-term efficacy and toxicities of this strategy.
Results: All the enrolled eight patients had a major response in imaging and/or pathological evaluation. Five of the seven resected patients were evaluated as pathological complete response. One patient without surgery has a clinical complete response (cCR) tumor response.
Conclusions: Neoadjuvant PD-1 blockade induced tumor regression with a major clinical and pathological response in advanced dMMR/MSI-H colorectal cancer. Further studies are required to evaluate the long-term effect of this strategy.
Systemic failure remains the major challenge in management of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). To optimize the timing of neoadjuvant treatment and enhance systemic control, we initiated a phase ...2 trial to evaluate a new strategy of neoadjuvant sandwich treatment, integrating induction chemotherapy, concurrent chemoradiation therapy, and consolidation chemotherapy. Here, we present preliminary results of this trial, reporting the tumor response, toxicities, and surgical complications.
Fifty-one patients with LARC were enrolled, among which were two patients who were ineligible because of distant metastases before treatment. Patients were treated first with one cycle of induction chemotherapy consisting of oxaliplatin, 130 mg/m² on day 1, with capecitabine, 1000 mg/m² twice daily for 14 days every 3 weeks (the XELOX regimen), followed by chemoradiation therapy, 50 Gy over 5 weeks, with the modified XELOX regimen (oxaliplatin 100 mg/m²), and then with another cycle of consolidation chemotherapy with the XELOX regimen. Surgery was performed 6 to 8 weeks after completion of radiation therapy. Tumor responses, toxicities, and surgical complications were recorded.
All but one patent completed the planned schedule of neoadjuvant sandwich treatment. Neither life-threatening blood count decrease nor febrile neutropenia were observed. Forty-five patents underwent optimal surgery with total mesorectal excision (TME). Four patients refused surgery because of clinically complete response. There was no perioperative mortality in this cohort. Five patients (11.1%) developed postoperative complications. Among the 45 patients who underwent TME, pathologic complete response (pCR), pCR or major regression, and at least moderate regression were achieved in 19 (42.2%), 37 (82.2%), and 44 patients (97.8%), respectively.
Preliminary results suggest that the strategy of neoadjuvant sandwich treatment using XELOX regimen as induction, concomitant, and consolidation chemotherapy to the conventional radiation is well tolerated. The strategy is highly effective in terms of pCR and major regression, which warrants further investigation.
Purpose
To determine diagnostic performance of simple measurements on diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) for assessment of complete tumour response (CR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in ...patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) by signal intensity (SI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements.
Materials and methods
Sixty-five patients with LARC who underwent neoadjuvant CRT and subsequent surgery were included. Patients underwent pre-CRT and post-CRT 3.0 T MRI. Regions of interest of the highest brightness SI were included in the tumour volume on post-CRT DWI to calculate the SI
lesion
, rSI, ADC
lesion
and rADC; diagnostic performance was compared by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. In order to validate the accuracy and reproducibility of the current strategy, the same procedure was reproduced in 80 patients with LARC at 1.5 T MRI.
Results
Areas under the ROC curve for identification of a CR, based on SI
lesion
, rSI, ADC
lesion
, and rADC, respectively, were 0.86, 0.94, 0.66, and 0.71 at 3.0 T MRI, and 0.92, 0.91, 0.64, and 0.61 at 1.5 T MRI.
Conclusion
Post-CRT DWI SI
lesion
and rSI provided high diagnostic performance in assessing CR and were significantly more accurate than ADC
lesion
, and rADC at 3.0 T MRI and 1.5 T MRI.
Key Points
•
Signal intensity
(
SI
lesion
)
and rSI are accurate for assessment of complete response
.
•
rSI seems to be superior to SI
lesion
at 3.0 T MRI
.
•
ADC or rADC measurements are not accurate for assessment of complete response
.
Our aim is to explore the trend of association between the survival rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) and the different clinical characteristics in patients registered from 1960s to 2000s. We ...hypothesized that the survival rate of CRC increases over time and varies according to anatomic subsites.
Information from a total of 4558 stage T(1-4)N(1-2)M0 CRC patients registered from 1960s to 2008 were analyzed. The association of CRC overall survival with age, gender, tumor locations, time, histopathology types, pathology grades, no. of examined lymph nodes, the T stage, and the N stage was analyzed. The assessment of the influence of prognostic factors on patient survival was performed using Cox's proportional hazard regression models.
From 1960 to 2008, the studied CRC patients included 2625 (57.6%) and 1933 (42.4%) males and females, respectively. These included 1896 (41.6%) colon cancers, and 2662 (58.4%) rectum cancers. The 5-year survival rate was 49%, 58%, 58%, 70%, and 77% for the time duration of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, respectively. An increased 5-year survival rate was observed in the colon cancer and rectum cancer patients. Patients older than 60 years of age were more likely to develop colonic cancer (sigmoid) than rectum cancer (49.2% vs. 39.9%). The Cox regression model showed that only rectum cancer survival was related to time duration.
The overall survival and 5-year survival rates showed an increase from the 1960s to 2000s. There is a trend of rightward shift of tumor location in CRC patients.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Purpose
The safety and efficacy of intraoperative chemotherapy in colorectal cancer have not yet been extensively investigated. This randomized control trial was designed to compare the safety and ...efficacy of intraoperative chemotherapy in combination with surgical resection to those of traditional surgical resection alone.
Methods
From January 2011 to January 2016, 696 colorectal cancer patients were enrolled in this study: 341 patients were randomly assigned to the intraoperative chemotherapy, which consist of portal vein chemotherapy, intraluminal chemotherapy and intraperitoneal chemotherapy, plus surgery group, whereas 344 patients were randomized to the control group to undergo surgery alone. Eleven patients withdrew consent.
Results
Intraoperative chemotherapy did not increase the rate of surgical complications, and no severe chemotherapy-associated side effects were observed. Four patients in each of the intraoperative chemotherapy and the control groups experienced anastomotic leakage and underwent a second operation (1.2 vs. 1.2%,
P
= 0.99). There were no deaths within 90 days after surgery in the chemotherapy group, whereas one patient died in the control group. Intraoperative chemotherapy did not decrease the rate of patients who received postoperative chemotherapy between the intraoperative group and control group (29.3 vs. 30.2%,
P
= 0.795).
Conclusions
Intraoperative chemotherapy can be safely performed during colorectal surgery; however, follow-up is necessary for a better assessment of its efficacy.
ClinicalTrial.gov Register Number: NCT01465451.
Cardiac hypertrophy, including hypertension and valvular dysfunction, is a pathological feature of many cardiac diseases that ultimately leads to heart failure. Melatonin confers a protective role ...against pathological cardiac hypertrophy, but the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. In the present study, we hypothesized that melatonin protects against pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy by attenuating Atg5-dependent autophagy and activating the Akt/mTOR pathway. Male C57BL/6 mice that received adenovirus carrying cardiac-specific Atg5 (under the cTNT promoter; Ad-cTNT-Atg5) underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) or sham operation and received an intraperitoneal injection of melatonin (10 mg/kg/d), vehicle or LY294002 (10 mg/kg/d) for 8 weeks. Melatonin treatment for 8 weeks markedly attenuated cardiac hypertrophy and restored impaired cardiac function, as indicated by a decreased HW/BW ratio, reduced cell cross-sectional area and fibrosis, downregulated the mRNA levels of ANP, BNP, and β-MHC and ameliorated adverse effects on the LVEF and LVFS. Melatonin treatment also inhibited apoptosis and alleviated autophagy dysfunction. Furthermore, melatonin inhibited Akt/mTOR pathway activation, while these effects were blocked by LY294002. In addition, the effect of melatonin regulation on TAC-induced autophagy dysfunction was inhibited by LY294002 or cardiac-specific Atg5 overexpression. As expected, Akt/mTOR pathway inhibition or cardiac-specific Atg5 overexpression restrained melatonin alleviation of pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy. These results demonstrated that melatonin ameliorated pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy by attenuating Atg5-dependent autophagy and activating the Akt/mTOR pathway.
•Our study demonstrated that melatonin treatment alleviated pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy.•Melatonin alleviated pressure overload-induced cardiac hypertrophy by Atg5-dependent autophagy and the Akt/mTOR pathway.•Regulation of autophagy is a potential therapeutic strategy for cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.
Genetic factors play an important role in colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, yet the prevalence and spectrum of germline cancer susceptibility gene mutations among unselected Chinese CRC patients is ...largely undetermined.
We performed next-generation sequencing with a 73-genes panel and analyzed the prevalence and spectrum of germline mutations in 618 unselected Chinese CRC patients. We classified all identified germline alterations for pathogenicity and calculated the frequencies of pathogenic mutations. Clinical characteristics were assessed by age and mutation status. Protein expressions and interactions of MLH1 missense variants were evaluated by western blot and co- immunoprecipitation.
Overall, 112 (18.1%) of 618 unselected Chinese CRC patients were found to carry at least one pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant (totaling 97 variants), including 70 (11.3%) Lynch syndrome (LS) mutation carriers and 42 (6.8%) non-LS mutation carriers. LS mutation carriers were significantly younger at CRC diagnosis and were more likely to have right-sided, poorly differentiated, early stage, high-frequency microsatellite instability (MSI-H) or dMMR CRC and a family history of cancer compared with noncarriers. Non-LS mutation carriers were more likely to be proficient mismatch repair (pMMR) than noncarriers (
=0.039). We found four clinical variables (gender, tumor histological stage, cancer stage and mutation status) that showed significant differences between patients younger and older than 50 years old. Higher mutation rates were found in patients under 50 years old (
=0.017). Thirty-three novel variants were discovered and evaluated as pathogenic mutations by our study.
Given the high frequency and wide spectrum of mutations, genetic testing with a multigene panel should be considered for all Chinese CRC patients under 50 years old and is also needed to determine whether a gene is associated with CRC susceptibility and to promote clinical translation.