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Systems for post-correction of OCR-results for historical texts are based on statistical correction models obtained by supervised learning. For training, suitable collections of ground truth materials are needed. In this paper we investigate the dependency of the power of automated OCR post-correction on the form of ground truth data and other training settings used for the computation of a post-correction model. The post-correction system A-PoCoTo considered here is based on a profiler service that computes a statistical profile for an OCR-ed input text. We also look in detail at the influence of the profiler resources and other settings selected for training and evaluation. As a practical result of several fine-tuning steps, a general post-correction model is achieved where experiments for a large and heterogeneous collection of OCR-ed historical texts show a consistent improvement of base OCR accuracy. The results presented are meant to provide insights for libraries that want to apply OCR post-correction to a larger spectrum of distinct OCR-ed historical printings and ask for "representative" results.

Simple Summary Predictive markers are necessary for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy. The aim of our retrospective study was to investigate the relationship between the occurrence of lymphopenia under ICI and disease outcome. A total of 116 patients with metastatic melanoma who received ICI therapy with normal lymphocyte counts at baseline were analyzed. Lymphopenia occurred in 42.2% of patients with a mean onset after 17 weeks (range 1–180 weeks). The occurrence of lymphopenia during immunotherapy was significantly associated with a shorter PFS and OS. Patients who developed lymphopenia (n = 49) had a mean PFS of 13.3 months (range 1–67 months) compared to 16.9 months (range 1–73 months) for patients who did not develop lymphopenia (n = 67; p = 0.025). Similarly, patients with lymphopenia had a significantly shorter OS of 28.1 months (range 2–70 months) compared with 36.8 months (range 4–106 months) in patients who did not develop lymphopenia (p = 0.01). Abstract Predictive markers for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy are needed. Thus, baseline blood counts have been investigated as biomarkers, showing that lymphopenia at the start of therapy with (ICI) is associated with a worse outcome in metastatic melanoma. We investigated the relationship between the occurrence of lymphopenia under ICI and disease outcome. Patients with metastatic melanoma who had undergone therapy with ICI were identified in our database. Only patients with a normal lymphocyte count at baseline were included in this retrospective study. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were compared between patients in which lymphopenia occurred during ICI therapy and those who did not develop lymphopenia. In total, 116 patients were analyzed. Lymphopenia occurred in 42.2% of patients, with a mean onset after 17 weeks (range 1–180 weeks). The occurrence of lymphopenia during immunotherapy was significantly associated with a shorter PFS and OS. Patients who developed lymphopenia (n = 49) had a mean PFS of 13.3 months (range 1–67 months) compared to 16.9 months (range 1–73 months) for patients who did not develop lymphopenia (n = 67; p = 0.025). Similarly, patients with lymphopenia had a significantly shorter OS of 28.1 months (range 2–70 months) compared with 36.8 months (range 4–106 months) in patients who did not develop lymphopenia (p = 0.01). Patients with metastatic melanoma who develop lymphopenia during ICI therapy have a worse prognosis with significantly shorter PFS and OS compared with patients who do not develop lymphopenia.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) may induce persistent immune-related adverse events (irAEs). We investigated persistent irAEs and implications on patients' lives compared to non-ICI-induced autoimmune diseases (AIs).The multicentre, cross-sectional study comprised 200 patients with cancer ≥12 weeks after ICI cessation (ICI-patients) and 2705 patients with AIs (AI-patients), recruited in German outpatient clinics and support groups. The prevalence of persistent irAEs subdivided in long-term (12 weeks to 12 months) and chronic irAEs (≥12 months) since ICI discontinuation, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) using the EuroQol 5D-5L (EQ-Index/VAS score), and burden of autoimmune symptoms and respective therapies were assessed.Long-term/chronic irAEs occurred in 51.9%/35.5% of outpatient ICI-patients, including arthralgia (16.7%/16.1%), myalgia (13.0%/14.0%), hypothyroidism (11.1%/10.8%), xerostomia (7.4%/8.6%), vitiligo (13.0%/7.5%) and hypophysitis (9.3%/7.5%). ICI-patients with long-term/chronic irAEs reported clinically significantly reduced HRQoL compared to ICI-patients without long-term/chronic irAEs (EQ-Index score: 0.767/0.752 versus 0.920/0.923, p 0.001/0.001; EQ-VAS score: 52.2/52.0 versus 63.6/74.7, p =/ 0.040/0.001). Multiple linear regression analyses confirmed clinically significant reductions in HRQoL scores by chronic irAEs (EQ-Index/VAS score: -0.163/-23.4, p 0.001/0.001). HRQoL, burden of autoimmune symptoms and burden of respective therapies in ICI-patients with chronic irAEs were similar to AI-patients with non-exacerbated AIs. Patients with chronic irAEs felt inadequately informed about side-effects compared to patients without chronic irAEs (p 0.001).Persistent irAEs impose a significant burden on patients after ICI cessation. Especially in early tumour stages, risk-benefit ratios must be carefully evaluated, and patients need to be informed about potential long-term sequelae.

Bereits seit einigen Jahren werden große Anstrengungen unternommen, um die im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts zu erfassen und zu digitalisieren. Deren Volltexttransformation konzeptionell und technisch vorzubereiten, ist das übergeordnete Ziel des DFG-Projekts OCR-D, das sich mit der Weiterentwicklung von Verfahren der Optical Character Recognition befasst. Der Beitrag beschreibt den aktuellen Entwicklungsstand der OCR-D-Software und analysiert deren erste Teststellung in ausgewählten Bibliotheken., For some years, great efforts have been made to record and digitise the printed works of the 16th-18th centuries published in the German-speaking countries. Preparing their full-text transformation conceptually and technically is the overall goal of the DFG-project OCR-D, which is concerned with the further development of optical character recognition methods. The article describes the current state of development of the OCR-D software and analyses its initial testing in selected libraries.