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Backgrounds: A respiratory epidemic defined as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is becoming unstoppable and has been declared a pandemic. Patients with cancer are more likely to develop COVID-19. Based on our experience during the pandemic period, we propose some surgery strategies for gastric cancer patients under the COVID-19 situation. Methods We defined the ‘COVID-19’ period as occurring between 2020-01-20 and 2020-03-20. All the enrolled patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 group (PCG) and COVID-19 group (CG). A total of 109 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. Results The waiting times before admission increased by 4 days in CG(PCG:4.5 [IQR: 2, 7.8] vs. CG:8.0 [IQR: 2,20]; P = 0.006). More patients had performed chest CT scan besides abdominal CT before admission during COVID-19 period(PCG:22[32%]vs. CG:30[73%], p = 0.001). After admission, during COVID period, the waiting time before surgery was longer(3[IQR: 2,5] vs. 7[IQR: 5,9]; P

Background: The study was performed to investigate the relationship between aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase ratio (DRR) and long-term mortality among patients diagnosed with sepsis or septic shock. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study among adult septic patients who were admitted to surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital from January 2014 to December 2018. Baseline characteristics were compared between survivors and non-survivors. We applied univariate as well as multivariate Cox regression analyses to evaluate DRR in relation to 180-day mortality. The potential prognostic value of DRR in predicting mortality rate was assessed by receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis. Besides, we conducted subgroup analysis by stratifying patients via optimal DRR cut-off value. Results: We included a total number of 183 patients in the current study, 44 (24%) patients died within 180-day hospitalization. Univariate and multivariate Cox analysis revealed that DRR was an independent predictor of 180-day mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.421, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.073-1.883, P = 0.014). The predicting accuracy of 180-day mortality for DRR was presented as ROC with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.708 (95% CI 0.629–0.786, P < 0.001). As we stratified all enrolled patients into two groups by using the optimal cut-off value of 1.29, we observed a significantly higher mortality in patients with relatively high DRR. Conclusions: An elevated DRR was associated with higher 180-day mortality among septic patients, and DRR might be an optimal marker for predicting the long-term mortality of sepsis. More prospective and randomized trials are needed to confirm the prognostic value of DRR.

Background ： A respiratory epidemic defined as coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID-19 ) is becoming unstoppable and has been declared a pandemic. Patients with cancer are more likely to develop COVID-19. Based on our experience during the pandemic period, we propose some surgery strategies for gastric cancer patients under the COVID-19 situation. Methods ： We defined the ‘COVID-19’ period as occurring between 2020-01-20 and 2020-03-20. All the enrolled patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 group (PCG) and COVID-19 group (CG). A total of 109 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. Results ： The waiting times before admission increased by 4 days in CG(PCG:4.5 [IQR: 2, 7.8] vs. CG:8.0 [IQR: 2,20]; P = 0.006). More patients had performed chest CT scan besides abdominal CT before admission during COVID-19 period(PCG:22[32%]vs. CG:30[73%], p=0.001). After admission, during COVID period, the waiting time before surgery was longer(3[IQR: 2,5] vs. 7[IQR: 5,9]; P < 0.001),more laparoscopic surgery were performed(PCG: 51[75%] vs. CG: 38[92%],p=0.021), and hospital stay after surgery was longer (7[IQR: 6,8] vs.9[IQR:7,11] ; P < 0.001). The total cost of hospitalization increased during COVID period, (9.22[IQR:7.82,10.97] vs. 10.42[IQR:8.99,12.57]; p=0.006). Conclusion ： Since no data is available yet on the impact of COVID-19 on gastric cancer patients,our own experience with COVID-19 in gastric cancer surgery has hopefully provided an opportunity for colleagues to reflect on their own service and any contingency plans they have to tackle the crisis. Keywords: gastric cancer; coronavirus disease 2019; COVID-19; retrospective analysis; real-world data.