Clinical Significance of Discordance between Carcinoembryonic Antigen Levels and RECIST in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic implications of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels that are inconsistent with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumor (RECIST) responses in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 360 patients with at least one measurable lesion who received first-line palliative chemotherapy. CEA-response was defined as CEA-complete response (CR; CEA normalization), CEA-partial response (PR; ≥ 50% decrease in CEA levels), CEA-progressive disease (PD; ≥ 50% increase in CEA levels), and CEA-stable disease (SD; non-CR/PR/PD). Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated according to CEA-response. RESULTS: In RECIST-PR patients, poorer CEA-response was associated with disease progression at the subsequent evaluation. In RECIST-SD patients, CEA-CR and -PR were associated with lower disease progression rates than CEA-PD at the subsequent evaluation. Correlations between survival outcome and CEA-response in same-category RECIST patients were assessed. In RECIST-PR patients, discordant CEA-response (CEA-PD/SD) was associated with poorer survival than CEA-CR/PR (median OS and PFS, 44.0 and 15.4 [CEA-CR], 28.9 and 12.5 [CEA-PR], 21.0 and 9.8 [CEA-SD], and 13.0 and 7.0 [CEA-PD] months, respectively; all p < 0.001). In RECIST-SD patients, favorable CEA-response produced better survival (median OS and PFS, 26.8 and 21.0 [CEA-CR], 21.0 and 11.0 [CEA-PR], 16.1 and 8.2 [CEA-SD], and 12.2 and 6.0 [CEA-PD] months, respectively; all p < 0.001). RECIST-PD patients with CEA-CR showed longer OS than those with CEA-PD. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that discordant CEA-response is a powerful prognostic factor for RECIST-PR and RECIST-SD patients. CONCLUSION: Among patients of the same RECIST-response categories, CEA-response patterns are significantly prognostic and strongly predictive of subsequent evaluation outcomes.

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio prechemotherapy and postchemotherapy as a prognostic marker in metastatic gastric cancer

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Markers of inflammation have been associated with outcomes in various cancers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether systemic inf lammatory markers and their f luctuations can predict survival and chemotherapy response in patients with metastatic gastric cancer (mGC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 502 patients who received first-line palliative chemotherapy for mGC between 2007 and 2013. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) were assessed before and after chemotherapy to evaluate their association with survival. The NLR values were categorized into two groups based on a cut-off value of 3; mGPS values were classified as high versus low. RESULTS: High prechemotherapy NLR was significantly associated with poor overall survival on univariate analysis (p = 0.002). On multivariate analysis, high prechemotherapy NLR (hazard ratio, 1.43; p < 0.001) was an independent prognostic factor for poor overall survival. However, the prechemotherapy mGPS was not significantly associated with survival. Continuously high NLR or a shift to high NLR postchemotherapy was associated with poor chemotherapy response as well as survival, while NLR reduction was associated with a good response (linear by linear association, p < 0.001) and a favorable prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Prechemotherapy NLR can be used as a prognostic factor in mGC, while the postchemotherapy NLR value may predict the chemotherapeutic response and prognosis. In contrast, mGPS has limited prognostic utility in mGC.

A Rare Case of Primary Spinal Cord Germinoma Treated with Single Radiation Therapy after Surgery / 대한내과학회지

A 32-year old male came to our hospital with chief complaint of paraplegia. He had symptom of radiating pain to right leg 3 months ago before paraplegic symptom appeared. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging from outside hospital showed intramedullary mass involving from T8 to T10 level of spinal cord. According to the imaging result, tumor removal with total laminectomy was performed between T8 and T10 level in our hospital. Pathologic result was compatible with germinoma. Spine radiation (39.6 Gy/22 fx) from T7 to T12 level without chemotherapy was performed 3 weeks later since tumor removal. Follow-up MR imaging showed no recurrence without any distant metastasis. And our patient's neurologic symptom had been improved. According to this case, postoperative radiotherapy is thought to be effective to primary spinal germinoma.

A Case of Patient with Lung Adenocarcinoma with Double Rare EGFR Mutation of G719C and L861Q / 계명의대학술지

The vast majority of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations are detected in lung adenocarcinoma. EGFR mutations are the strongest predictor of response to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment in patient with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Of these, exon 19 deletions and exon 21 L858R point mutations account for more than 80% of mutations detected in tumor with EGFR mutations, which called classical EGFR mutations, and double mutations mainly composed of classical and uncommon EGFR mutations are reported to be present in 13% of total EGFR mutations. But there has been no report to date of patient with double mutation of TKI sensitive uncommon EGFR mutations (G719C and L861Q). We experienced a case of patient with lung adenocarcinoma with double mutation of G719C and L861Q, the first case on our literature review, and showing partial response to TKI treatment.