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Purpose: N3 gastric cancer is characterized by a fairly high lymph node metastasis burden and poor outcome despite optimal therapy. Given the limitations of TNM classification, a comprehensive evaluation tool is necessary to predict the prognosis of patients with N3 gastric cancer who underwent curative surgery. This study aims to explore the outcomes and clinicopathologic prognostic factors affecting the overall survival (OS) of patients with N3 gastric cancer after surgery.Methods: Data on patients with N3 gastric cancer who underwent (sub)total gastrectomy and regional lymph node dissection between November 2005 and September 2018 (n =  169) were analyzed by Cox regression to determine the independent prognostic factors for OS.Results: The multivariable analysis established that gender, patient performance status, metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR), tumor grade, and adjuvant chemotherapy are significantly associated with OS. The five-year OS of the study population was 15%. Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy was applied to 72% of the patients, which resulted in an improvement in recurrence-free survival but not OS. Recurrence occurred in 103 (75%) patients, in which the most frequent recurrence site was distant metastasis.Conclusion: Male gender, poor performance status, grade 3 tumor, MLNR >  0.37, and not receiving adjuvant chemotherapy are predictors of poor prognosis in N3 gastric cancer after curative resection. Considering the high recurrence rates of this group, prospective studies are needed to optimize treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inflammation markers are the new point of view in cancer due to increasing data on the interaction of immune system with tumor cells and their prognostic and predictive importance were found in many different types of solid tumors. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), neutrophil-platelet score (NPS), and systemic inflammation index (SII) in Ewing sarcoma patients in which risk groups are still not clearly defined. Methods and Results: A total of 64 patients were evaluated retrospectively. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to find cut-off values for NLR and SII. Survival analysis was calculated by using Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was performed to determine prognostic factors such as age, stage, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy were statistically significant prognostic factors for OS in multivariate analysis. While patients with low NLR and SII had longer OS (P = 0.003 and P = 0.018), patients with high NPS score had shorter OS (67.7 vs 21.7 months, P = 0.001). Conclusion: Patients with lower NLR, NPS, and SII score have a better prognosis compared with those with higher NLR, NPS, and SII score and these simple parameters may be monitoring tools of the tumor microenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Endometrium cancer is the most common gynecological malignancy in developed countries. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of HER2 positivity on prognosis in endometrial cancer. Methods: In our study, patients admitted to our clinic with a diagnosis of endometrial cancer between September 2019 and December 2023 were retrospectively evaluated. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) immunohistochemistry was performed in 121 patients. HER2-low group (HER2 score: 0 and 1) and HER2-high group (HER2 score: 2 and 3) were defined according to the HER2 immunohistochemistry score in the pathology, and patients were compared accordingly. Results: We observed that 97 (80.2%) of the patients were in the HER2-low group, while 24 (19.8%) were in the HER2-high group. In the OS analysis, age (p = 0.381), menopausal status (p = 0.511), ECOG performance status (p = 0.087), histological type of tumor (p = 0.727), pathological grade (p = 0.206), serum LDH (p = 0.091), and albumin (p = 0.315) levels did not affect the prognosis. Patients with lower FIGO stage (p = 0.003) and HER2-high patients (p = 0.040) had better survival outcomes. Multivariable analysis showed that FIGO stage (p = 0.004) and HER2 status (p = 0.040) were independent risk factors affecting survival in endometrial cancer. Conclusion: As a result of our study, it was observed that FIGO stage and HER2 status were independent risk factors affecting OS in endometrial cancer patients. HER2-high group had a better prognosis than HER2-low group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Letrozole is an aromatase inhibitor (AI), which suppresses plasma estrogen levels by inhibiting the aromatase enzyme, that causes the conversion of androgens to estrogen in peripheral tissues. There is very few information in the literature regarding the development of acute heart failure after AI use. We would like to report a case of a patient who was started letrozole for hormonal treatment and developed acute heart failure due to this.Fifty-seven-year-old woman with hormone positive breast cancer was operated after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and received radiotherapy. Letrozole treatment was initiated after radiotherapy and the patient presented to the emergency department after two weeks with cough and dyspnea. Ejection fraction decreased to 20% and acute heart failure developed.Letrozole treatment was stopped. Afterwards, improvement in the patient's cardiac functions was observed. Letrozole-induced heart failure was thought to be reversible.Letrozole is one of the most commonly used HT in the treatment of hormone positive breast cancer. It may rarely cause cardiac side effects. It is very important to make patients aware of these issues and to be consulted by cardiology in case of possible cardiac symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic caused a global public health problem. In this article, anxiety and insomnia rates of cancer patients who received chemotherapy during COVID-19 outbreak period were determined. In addition, patients' information and opinions about COVID-19 were discussed. The study included 218 cancer patients who apply to outpatient chemotherapy clinic between May-June 2020, aged 18 and over, who were receiving chemotherapy. Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Insomnia Severity Index questionnaire forms were given to fill the patients to evaluate their anxiety and insomnia levels. We also prepared 12 additional questions about the knowledge and perceptions of COVID-19. Seventy eight (35.8%) patients had anxiety and 106 (48.6%) had insomnia. The rate of whole patients with severe anxiety was 1.8% and with severe insomnia was 2.8%. There was a statistically significant relationship between tumor localization and anxiety (p=0.006). Anxiety scores also increased with the increase in insomnia scores (p< 0.001). Eighty three percent of our patients wore face masks in any environment where they were in contact with people, and 84.9% believed in the protection of the face mask. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the anxiety and insomnia rates of the cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in COVID-19 pandemic. The uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic process can further increase anxiety and insomnia rates. Patients should be evaluated psychosocially both in the pandemic process and after. Correcting these misperception should be targe-ted in information campaigns, information by clinicians to their patients, and media coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (non-ccRCC) is a highly heterogeneous disease group, accounting for approximately 25% of all RCC cases. Due to its rarity and especially heterogeneity, phase III trial data is limited and treatment options generally follow those of clear cell RCC. In the literature, there exists a number of studies with sunitinib, cabozantinib, and everolimus, but data on the efficacy of pazopanib are limited. Our aim in this study was to compare the efficacy of pazopanib and sunitinib, in a multicenter retrospective cohort of non-ccRCC patients. Our study included patients diagnosed with non-ccRCC who received pazopanib or sunitinib treatment as first-line therapy from 22 tertiary hospitals. We compared the progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and response rates of pazopanib and sunitinib treatments. Additionally, we investigated prognostic factors in non-ccRCC. PFS and response rates of sunitinib and pazopanib were found to be similar, while a numerical difference was observed in OS. Being 65 years and older, being in the intermediate or poor risk group according to the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium, having liver metastases, presence of a sarcomatoid component, and having de novo metastatic disease were found to be significantly associated with shorter PFS. Pazopanib treatment appears to have similar efficacy in the treatment of non-ccRCC compared to sunitinib. Though randomized controlled trials are lacking and will probably be never be available, we suggest that pazopanib could be a preferred agent like sunitinib and cabozantinib.