What is known and objective
A large proportion of recurrent cervical cancer (RCC) patients present with poor performance status (PS) after comprehensive treatments, which usually prevents them from ...opting for clinical trials. We retrospectively analysed the effect and safety of low‐dose apatinib and tegafur‐gimeracil‐oteracil (TGO) in the treatment of these patients.
Case summary
Six patients treated with low‐dose apatinib and TGO showed a disease control rate of 83.3% and grade 1‐2 adverse events (AEs).
What is new and conclusion
This case series indicates that low‐dose apatinib and TGO could be considered as palliative therapy for RCC patients with poor PS.
Recurrent cervical cancer patients after comprehensive treatments usually present with poor performance status. Low‐dose apatinib and tegafur‐gimeracil‐oteracil had a high DCR with only mild toxicities, and it could be used as a palliative therapy.
To analyze the difference of virulence-related protein concerned with type III secretion system (T3SS) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa during the changes of antibiotic sensitivity and interpret the ...clinical patient data to explore the relationship between the changes in resistance and variance of virulence.
The isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from the respiratory tract of a same patient with an altered sensitivity of antibiotics. It turned out to be one clone. The homolog of isolates was determined by ERIC-PCR. The Kirby-Bauer antibiotic testing was employed to detect the sensitivity of antibiotics of isolates. PCR was used to detect the gene of T3SS and virulence of isolates and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to compare the whole-cell proteins. The mass spectrometry was employed to analyze a variety of protein spots. The relevant information was retrieved from protein databases. Clinical record was collected to study the relationship of clinical features, bacteria resistance and virulence-associated protein.
One subject was diagnosed with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) complicated with pneumonia. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was isolated from his respiratory tract three times in one year. Sensitivity spectrum of isolates were as follows: sensitivity, multi-drug resistant (MDR) and pan-drug resistance (PDR). Virulence gene was exo U+/exo S-. Twenty-one differentially expressed proteins were revealed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in three isolates. The functions of 11 proteins were definite. Only 9 proteins were associated with basal bacterial metabolism. Disulfide oxidoreductase A (DsbA) corresponded to the variation of virulence and sensitivity spectrum. Clinical record revealed that the severe lung infection was caused by the PDR strain and the patient died within one month.
The sensitivity spectrum and virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa may undergo changes when there is an alteration of eco-environment during colonization and infection over a long period of time. DsbA plays a key role in the variety of virulence.
The present study was conducted to clarify the psychophysiological relaxation effects of viewing bamboo on university students. Forty healthy Chinese participants enrolled in this study to clarify ...the psychophysiological relaxation effects of viewing bamboo. The effects of visual stimulation using a pot both with and without a bamboo were recorded by measuring the student＇s blood pressure, EEG and STAI. We observed that viewing bamboo plants resulted in significantly lower systolic（female, P 〈 0.001; male, P 〈 0.001; P 〈 0.05） and diastolic（female,P 〈 0.001; male, P 〈 0.001; P 〈 0.05） blood pressures, but no changes in the pulse rate（female, P = 0.09; male, P = 0.07; P 〉 0.05） were observed. The results of the EEG analysis indicated brainwave variation（all P 〈 0.05） and lower anxiety scores（P 〈 0.01） after 3 min of viewing bamboo compared with the control. These findings indicate that visual stimulation with bamboo plants induced psychophysiological relaxation effects on adults.
WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVEA large proportion of recurrent cervical cancer (RCC) patients present with poor performance status (PS) after comprehensive treatments, which usually prevents them from ...opting for clinical trials. We retrospectively analysed the effect and safety of low-dose apatinib and tegafur-gimeracil-oteracil (TGO) in the treatment of these patients. CASE SUMMARYSix patients treated with low-dose apatinib and TGO showed a disease control rate of 83.3% and grade 1-2 adverse events (AEs). WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSIONThis case series indicates that low-dose apatinib and TGO could be considered as palliative therapy for RCC patients with poor PS.
The intermetallic compound ZrCo was prepared, and its hydrogen-induced disproportionation in hydrogen desorption processes was investigated. The hydrogenation-dehydrogenation thermodynamics of the ...ZrCo alloy was evaluated by pressure-composition isotherm measurements at different temperatures. The kinetic processes of hydrogen-induced disproportionation at different temperatures under certain pressures were detailedly studied. The disproportionation rate of the ZrCo alloy increased with the increases of temperature and initial hy- drogen pressure under experimental conditions. However, the maximum attainable extent of disproportionation did not change much with an increase in temperature or initial hydrogen pressure. The crystallographic structure analysis of the ZrCo alloy combining with its corre- sponding dehydrogenation kinetic curves under the conditions of an initial hydrogen pressure of 0.2 MPa and a temperature of 723 K indi- cated that the basic process of disproportionation reactions was composed of four stages： rapid dehydrogenation of ZrCoH3, equilibrium of dehydrogenation, simultaneity of dehydrogenation and disproportionation, and completion of disproportionation.
The Bi0.5Na0.02Sb1.48-xInxTe3alloys（x =0.02-0.20） were synthesized by vacuum melting and hot pressing methods at 753 K,60 MPa for 30 min.Effects of Na and In dual partial substitutions for Sb on the ...thermoelectric properties were investigated from 300 to 500 K.Substituting Sb with Na and In can enhance the Seebeck coefficient effectively near room temperature.The electrical resistivity of the Na and In dual-doping samples is higher within the whole test temperature range.The Bi0.5Na0.02Sb1.48-xInxTe3samples（x = 0.02,0.06） play a great role in optimizing the thermal conductivity.As for the Bi0.5Na0.02Sb1.46In0.02Te3alloy,the minimum value of thermal conductivity reaches 0.53 W·m-1·K-1at 320 K.The thermoelectric performance of the Na and In dualdoped samples is greatly improved,and a figure of merit ZT of 1.26 is achieved at 300 K for the Bi0.5Na0.02Sb1.42In0.06Te3,representing 26%enhancement with respect to ZT = 1.0 of the undoped sample.
Immunoassays and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) are two major methods for therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of immunosuppressant drugs. Compared to the relatively limited ...analytical performance and cross reactivities of immunoassays, the LC-MS/MS method is considered as a gold standard; however, the lack of systematic evaluation and standardization needs to be addressed.
A LC-MS/MS method for the determination of cyclosporine A, sirolimus, tacrolimus, and everolimus was developed. One-step protein precipitation was used to prepare blood samples. The newly developed method was systematically evaluated and validated according to the standard guidelines.
The quantitative method for four immunosuppressant drugs in human whole blood was validated according to the guidelines. The lower limits of the measuring interval (LLMI) for cyclosporine A, sirolimus, tacrolimus, and everolimus were 5, 0.5, 0.5, and 0.5 ng/mL, respectively. Linear correlation coefficients were all >0.999. Internal standard-normalized (IS-normalized) matrix correction factor was within the range 0.88–1.17. The average spiked recoveries of five replicates for the four immunosuppressant drugs were in the range 87.4–109.6%.
An LC-MS/MS method combined with one-step protein precipitation was developed, providing short sample preparation and chromatographic run time, thus allowing easy clinical diagnosis.
•A straightforward LC-MS/MS method was developed for determination of four immunosuppressant drugs.•One-step protein precipitation was used to deal with the blood samples, which was easy and high throughput.•Systematic evaluation were validated to access the method strictly according to the guidelines
Patients with cancer are a high-risk population in the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to describe clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with cancer and COVID-19, and examined risk factors ...for mortality in this population.
We did a retrospective, multicentre, cohort study of 205 patients with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and with a pathological diagnosis of a malignant tumour in nine hospitals within Hubei, China, from Jan 13 to March 18, 2020. All patients were either discharged from hospitals or had died by April 20, 2020. Clinical characteristics, laboratory data, and cancer histories were compared between survivors and non-survivors by use of χ2 test. Risk factors for mortality were identified by univariable and multivariable logistic regression models.
Between Jan 13 and Mar 18, 2020, 205 patients with cancer and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were enrolled (median age 63 years IQR 56–70; range 14–96; 109 53% women). 183 (89%) had solid tumours and 22 (11%) had haematological malignancies. The median duration of follow-up was 68 days (IQR 59–78). The most common solid tumour types were breast (40 20% patients), colorectal (28 14%), and lung cancer (24 12%). 54 (30%) of 182 patients received antitumour therapies within 4 weeks before symptom onset. 30 (15%) of 205 patients were transferred to an intensive care unit and 40 (20%) died during hospital admission. Patients with haematological malignancies had poorer prognoses than did those with solid tumours: nine (41%) of 22 patients with haematological malignancies died versus 31 (17%) of 183 patients with solid tumours (hazard ratio for death 3·28 95% CI 1·56–6·91; log rank p=0·0009). Multivariable regression analysis showed that receiving chemotherapy within 4 weeks before symptom onset (odds ratio OR 3·51 95% CI 1·16–10·59; p=0·026) and male sex (OR 3·86 95% CI 1·57–9·50; p=0·0033) were risk factors for death during admission to hospital.
Patients with cancer and COVID-19 who were admitted to hospital had a high case-fatality rate. Unfavourable prognostic factors, including receiving chemotherapy within 4 weeks before symptom onset and male sex, might help clinicians to identify patients at high risk of fatal outcomes.
National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Human brain function undergoes complex transformations across the lifespan. We employed resting-state functional MRI and graph-theory approaches to systematically chart the lifespan trajectory of the ...topological organization of human whole-brain functional networks in 126 healthy individuals ranging in age from 7 to 85 years. Brain networks were constructed by computing Pearson's correlations in blood-oxygenation-level-dependent temporal fluctuations among 1024 parcellation units followed by graph-based network analyses. We observed that the human brain functional connectome exhibited highly preserved non-random modular and rich club organization over the entire age range studied. Further quantitative analyses revealed linear decreases in modularity and inverted-U shaped trajectories of local efficiency and rich club architecture. Regionally heterogeneous age effects were mainly located in several hubs (e.g., default network, dorsal attention regions). Finally, we observed inverse trajectories of long- and short-distance functional connections, indicating that the reorganization of connectivity concentrates and distributes the brain's functional networks. Our results demonstrate topological changes in the whole-brain functional connectome across nearly the entire human lifespan, providing insights into the neural substrates underlying individual variations in behavior and cognition. These results have important implications for disease connectomics because they provide a baseline for evaluating network impairments in age-related neuropsychiatric disorders.
The combination of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) fulfills an important role in the treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (uHCC). Among the ...combination therapies, both lenvatinib and sorafenib combined with TACE are recommended as first-¬line treatments for uHCC. However, at present, limited data are available concerning the efficacy and safety of these two combination therapies in uHCC.
A detailed systematic search for studies on lenvatinib plus TACE (LEN+TACE) and sorafenib plus TACE (SOR+TACE) was conducted in the online databases PubMed, Embase and The Cochrane Library. The outcome data including overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), time to progression (TTP), tumor response and adverse events (AEs), were independently extracted by two authors in a standardized way.
One randomized controlled trial and five cohort studies with 598 patients (LEN+TACE: 261, SOR+TACE: 337) were included in the meta-analysis. A higher rate of odds ratio (OR) for the objective response rate (ORR) OR: 3.63; 95% confidence intervals (95% CI): 1.89-6.95; I squared statistic (I2) = 57%, P < 0.001 and disease control rate (DCR) (OR: 3.78; 95% CI: 2.00-7.16; I2 = 52%, P = 0.0001) were observed in the LEN+SOR group compared with the SOR+TACE group. The LEN+TACE group also had significant longer OS hazard ratio (HR): 0.67; 95% CI: 0.52-0.85; I2 = 1%, P = 0.001, PFS (HR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.38-0.62; I2 = 0%, P? 0.001) and TTP (HR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.45-0.84; I2 = 0%, P = 0.002) compared with the SOR+TACE group. The incidence of hypertension (OR: 3.05; 95% CI: 1.45-6.39; P = 0.003) and proteinuria (OR: 5.25; 95% CI: 1.73-15.89; P = 0.003) were significantly higher in the LEN+TACE group than SOR+TACE group, while LEN+TACE group exhibited a lower rate of hand-foot-skin reaction (HFSR) (OR: 0.51; 95% CI: 0.27-0.95; P = 0.03) compared with the SOR+TACE group.
The combination therapy of LEN+TACE showed significant superiority compared with SOR+TACE in terms of its efficacy for patients with uHCC. SOR+TACE should be recommended as a replacement therapy when serious AEs occur during the administration of LEN+TACE as the combination therapy.
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