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Purpose: We investigated the relationship between pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (pre-NLR) levels just before the initiation of treatment with pembrolizumab and clinical outcomes in platinum-resistant metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) patients treated with pembrolizumab.Methods: Our study population comprised 78 patients diagnosed with metastatic UC and treated with pembrolizumab after platinum-based chemotherapy at our institutions between December 2017 and April 2019. We examined the relationships between pre-NLR levels just before pembrolizumab treatment and clinical outcomes. A pre-NLR level of ≥3.35 was defined as elevated according to a calculation by a receiver-operating curve analysis.Results: The high pre-NLR group consisted of 33 patients (42.3%). Overall, 29.5% of patients had a clinical response and the sum of the target lesion longest diameter was decreased in 18.8% of the high pre-NLR group, which was significantly lower than that in the low pre-NLR group (58.1%, P = 0.005). Six-month progression-free survival and cancer-specific survival rates for the high pre-NLR group were 9.1 and 58.0%, which were significantly lower than those for their counterpart (45.9 and 89.1%, P < 0.001 and P = 0.002, respectively). The pre-NLR level was an independent indicator of disease progression and cancer-specific death (P < 0.001 and P = 0.003). Furthermore, patients with a postpembrolizumab NLR level that had decreased ≥25% from the pre-NLR level had significantly lower disease progression and cancer-specific death rates than their counterparts (P = 0.01 and P = 0.022, respectively).Conclusions: Elevated pre-NLR may be a novel biomarker for identifying poor responders to pembrolizumab among platinum-resistant metastatic UC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) risk model has been designed for prognostification in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) treated with targeted therapy. One factor is neutrophil count; however, increasing evidence has suggested the superiority of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) for predicting outcome. In this study, we evaluate the prognostic effect of NLR levels on patients with mRCC treated with targeted therapy, and then we compare the predictive accuracy of the IMDC risk model and its modified one by using NLR, instead of neutrophil count.Patients and Method: A total of 277 patients are included for the analysis. All patients underwent targeted therapies and associated outcome are assessed using multivariate analysis.Results: Pretreatment NLR levels are elevated in 30.3% and 23.1% of patients in the first-line and subsequent second-line setting, respectively. Kaplan-Meier curves reveal that elevated pretreatment NLR is significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) since first-line (P<0.001) and second-line targeted therapy administration (P<0.001). Also, multivariate analyses show that elevated pretreatment NLR is an independent predictor for poor OS since first-line and second-line targeted therapy administration. The addition of NLR to the IMDC risk model, instead of neutrophil count, significantly improves the predictive accuracy for OS, and estimated gain is 1.7% and 6.2% in first-line and second-line targeted therapy, respectively.Conclusion: Changes in NLR levels could be predictive for prognosis in patients with mRCC treated with first-line and second-line targeted therapy. The addition of NLR significantly improves the predictive accuracy of the IMDC risk model in the first-line and subsequent second-line setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic effect of the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) model reclassification after targeted therapy administration in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).Patients and Method: A total of 245 mRCC patients treated with targeted therapy are included. The IMDC model reclassification is performed at 1 month after treatment induction of both first-line and second-line targeted therapy.Results: Of the 245 patients, 74 (30.2%) are divided into different risk groups by the IMDC model reclassification after first-line targeted therapy, and patients newly classified with intermediate risk tend to have better overall survival than those remaining in the primary poor-risk group (P = 0.018). Of the 119 patients treated with subsequent second-line targeted therapy, 25 (21.0%) are divided into different risk groups by the IMDC model reclassification after second-line targeted therapy, and patients newly classified with poor risk tend to have increased all-cause mortality compared with those remaining in the primary intermediate-risk group (P = 0.007), whereas patients newly classified with intermediate risk tend to have better overall survival than those remaining in the primary poor-risk group (P = 0.034).Conclusion: Approximately a quarter of the mRCC patients are classified into different risk groups of the IMDC model following targeted therapy administration in the first-line and second-line settings. There is a significant difference in overall survival of subgroups after the IMDC model reclassifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose To examine the clinical outcomes of regular use of ultrasonography when compared with those of cystoscopy in the follow-up of patients with TaG1-2 bladder tumors. Patients and methods Between 1990 and 2012, 197 patients with TaG1-2 bladder tumors from a retrospective 2-institution cohort were included. We assessed clinical outcomes in 83 patients followed up by ultrasonography, matched for propensity score calculated from clinicopathological variables including age, gender, tumor multiplicity, size, grade, postoperative immediate chemoinstillation, and adjuvant intravesical treatment. Results Among the 166 patients identified using the one-to-one propensity score analysis, the 5- and 10-year recurrence-free survival rates were both 63.3% in the cystoscopy group and 69.1% and 58.4%, respectively, in the ultrasonography group ( P = 0.762). A total of 54 patients experienced disease recurrence, and 18 patients acquired progressive disease such as tumor grade 3, pT1 tumors, and the appearance of concurrent carcinoma in situ. There were no significant differences in the characteristics of recurrent tumors between both the groups, whereas time to first recurrence in the cystoscopy group was significantly shorter than that in the ultrasonography group ( P = 0.021). In a subgroup analysis using 111 patients without adjuvant intravesical treatments, the 5- and 10-year recurrence-free survival rates were both 56.9% in the cystoscopy group and 71.9% and 60.3%, respectively, in the ultrasonography group ( P = 0.282). Conclusions This retrospective study suggests that ultrasonography may be one of the follow-up substitutes when considering the management of low-risk bladder tumors such as TaG1-2 bladder tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]