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Background and Aims: The precise prediction of COVID-19 prognosis remains a clinical challenge. In this regard, early identification of severe cases facilitates the triage and management of COVID-19 cases. The present paper aims to explore the prognosis of COVID-19 patients based on routine laboratory tests taken when patients are admitted., Methods: A data set including 1455 COVID-19 patients (727 male, 728 female) and their routine laboratory tests conducted upon hospital admission, age, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, and outcome were gathered. The data set was randomly split into the train (75% of the data) and test data set (25% of the data). The explainable boosting machine (EBM) and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) were used for predicting the mortality and ICU admission of COVID-19 cases. Also, feature importance was extracted using EBM and XGBoost., Results: The EBM and XGBoost achieved 86.38% and 88.56% accuracy in the test data set, respectively. In addition, EBM and XGBoost predicted the ICU admission with an accuracy of 89.37%, and 79.29% in the test data set for COVID-19 patients, respectively. Also, obtained models indicated that aspartate transaminase (AST), lymphocyte, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and age are the most significant predictors of COVID-19 mortality. Furthermore, the lymphocyte count, AST, and BUN level were the most significant ICU admission predictors of COVID-19 patients., Conclusions: The current study indicated that both EBM and XGBoost could predict the ICU admission and mortality of COVID-19 cases based on routine hematological and clinical chemistry evaluation at the time of admission. Also, based on the results, AST, lymphocyte count, and BUN levels could be used as early predictors of COVID-19 prognosis., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2024 The Author(s). Health Science Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: During the pandemic of COVID-19, cancer patients have been considered as one high-risk group in the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19. This study aimed to describe the clinical symptoms and risk factors of COVID-19 in cancer patients., Method: In a prospective cross-sectional study, during a year, all cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy and/or targeted therapy in our clinic (Kermanshah, Iran) were followed up in terms of getting COVID-19. We analyzed the effect of tumor features and demographic information on clinical manifestations, survival status, therapeutic outcomes, and severity of the disease COVID-19 in 2 categories of cancer (hematologic and solid cancers)., Results: Most of the patients (68%) were in the solid tumor category, including breast cancer (24.4%), colon cancer (22%), and gastric cancer (9.8%). There was a statistically significant difference between 2 categories of cancer in the clinical manifestations: the stage of cancer and survival status ( P  < .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of death in cancer patients with COVID-19 along with symptoms of diarrhea (odds ratio [OR] = 12.8, P  = .004), the difficulty of breath (OR = 10.73, P  = .034), drop of SO2 (OR = 1.334, P  = .003), thrombocytopenia (OR = 1.022, P  = .02), anemia (OR = 2.72, P  = .011), requiring mechanical ventilation (OR = 9.24, P  = .004), pleural infusion (OR = 10.28, P  = .02), and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR = 7.389, P  = .009) increases independent of other variables. The COVID-19 mortality rate in our cancer patients was 23%., Conclusions: Thrombocytopenia, anemia, and diarrhea are symptoms that, along with common symptoms such as lung involvement, difficulty breathing, and the need for a ventilator, increase the risk of death in cancer patients with COVID-19., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2022.)

Background: According to the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), getting influenza vaccines during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemics is especially important for people with certain underlying medical conditions, like cancer. Due to the similarities between the symptoms of influenza and COVID-19, receiving the flu vaccine in suspicious cases can be helpful because it will make it easier to request a medical test and diagnosis. In this study, the value of influenza vaccination in the cancer population was investigated., Methods: In a cross-sectional study, all cancer patients who were referred to our clinic and had eligibility to receive the flu vaccine were included in our study for following up clinical signs every week for one month. All patients who were vaccinated from October 1 to November 15, 2020 were investigated. The most side effects that were followed were fever, runny nose, bone pain, and life-threatening or persistent adverse effects., Results: From a total of 288 patients (median age: 52 years (range 18-79), 112 (38.9%) males and 176 (61.1%) female) with different types of cancers, only two patients had an adverse effect of vaccination (including bone pain, runny nose, and fatigue), and one had COVID-19 ten days after vaccination. The rest of the patients did not show any side effects due to flu vaccination after one month of follow-up. Cancer patients are recommended to receive the flu vaccine annually during the pandemic and after the end of this pandemic, usually during the flu epidemic season to reduce mortality., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The information gained from the Human Genome Project has facilitated molecular as well as cellular studies not only to find the origins of Breast Cancer (BC), but also to create novel, and effective treatments. In order to provide an infrastructure for local and international research in this area, Iranian Center for Breast Cancer (ICBC) has established a Bio-Bank (BB) for BC. This article describes the aim, structure, and activities in general, and the challenging issues confronting the bank as a model for the establishment of Bio-Banks in developing countries in particular. The methods employed by the Bank could be explained in the following categories: Blood and Tissue sampling, Preparation and Banking of collected Samples, Clinical and Histopathology data collection, Collaboration Protocol, Challenging issues, and the programs to confront the problems. During the five-year activity of the bank, 110 families were enrolled for genetic counseling, from whom 600 biologic samples were obtained, including 387 blood samples and 213 tissue samples. Of 387 blood samples, 317 (82%) were found to belong to the BC patients and the remaining 70 (18%) belonged to their available relatives. The number of samples increased over the study period partly as a result of the programs designed to confront the problems. During the study period, there were some finished research studies using the samples of BB, and many other studies which are still ongoing. ICBC-BB is a model of biologic sample banking which provides a significant number of biological samples for local and international collaborative research projects regarding molecular and cellular aspects of BC. In establishing the ICBC-BB we have experienced problems and challenges, some general and some local. Some were expected and others not, but we have identified solutions.

Introduction: Bladder emptying in crouching position is a conventional way in many eastern countries. Our aim was to evaluate uroflowmetry parameters as an index of obstruction severity in standing and crouching positions and comparison of them in patients with bladder outlet obstruction symptoms., Materials and Methods: Uroflowmetry in standing and crouching positions was done in 83 patients with bladder outlet obstruction symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The patients were 50 years old or older and their maximum flow rate in standing position was less than 15 mL/s. The maximum flow rate, average flow rate, maximum flow time, and postvoid residual urine volume were measured and recorded. The results in standing and crouching positions were compared., Results: The mean maximum flow rate and mean average flow rate in crouching position increased 86% and 51%, respectively (P < .001; P = .012), while mean maximum flow time and postvoid residual volume decreased 40% and 46%, respectively (P < .001; P < .001). These changes were also significant in patients with maximum flow rates of less than 10 mL/s and 10 mL/s to 15 mL/s in standing position, except for the maximum flow time in the latter group., Conclusion: A more complete emptying of bladder in crouching position in patients with BPH can be attributed to the increased bladder pressure due to a good transmission of intra-abdominal pressure and a complete and coordinated relaxation of pelvic floor muscles. This position can help improve patients' symptoms.