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Background: Patients with cancer are at a higher risk of getting infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 owing to their immunocompromised state. Providing care to these patients amidst the first wave of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was extremely challenging. Objective(s): This study was aimed at evaluating the clinical profile and disease-related outcomes of pediatric patients with hematological illnesses and cancer. Material(s) and Method(s): This retrospective study was conducted at a tertiary care center in North India during the first wave of the pandemic from March 2020 to December 2020. Children aged up to 18 years, who were treated for a hematological illness or malignancy or underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and tested positive for COVID-19 regardless of symptoms were included in the study. Baseline demographic data related to the age, diagnosis, treatment status, and chemotherapy protocol used were collected. Outcomes including the cure rates, comorbidities, and sequelae were recorded. Result(s): A total of 650 tests for COVID-19 were performed for 181 children;22 patients were found to be COVID-19 positive. The most common diagnosis was acute leukemia (63.6%). None of the patients developed COVID-19 pneumonia. The majority of patients had asymptomatic infection and were managed at home. Among those with a symptomatic infection, the most common symptoms were fever and cough. A total of 3 (13.6%) patients needed oxygen therapy, one developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome of children leading to cardiogenic shock. Three patients required intensive care or respiratory support;all the patients had favorable clinical outcomes. The median time from the onset of COVID-19 to a negative result on the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test was 21.3 days. Cancer treatment was modified in 15 patients (68.2%). Conclusion(s): Our results suggest that children with hemato-oncological illnesses rarely experience severe COVID-19 disease. The impact of the first wave of COVID-19 primarily manifested as disruptions in the logistic planning and administration of essential treatment to these children rather than COVID-19 sequelae.Copyright © 2021 Cancer Research, Statistics, and Treatment Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.
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SESSION TITLE: Challenges in Asthma SESSION TYPE: Rapid Fire Case Reports PRESENTED ON: 10/18/2022 10:15 am - 11:10 am INTRODUCTION: Dupilumab is one of the recently developed biological anti-asthma medications which is a human IgG4 monoclonal antibody. Dupliumab inhibits the biological effects of both IL-4 and IL-13. In 2018, Dupilumab was approved for treating moderate to severe asthma with an eosinophilic phenotype or with oral corticosteroid-dependent asthma. Transient, laboratory eosinophilia is a common side effect of Dupilumab, but clinical consequences are hardly ever reported. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 66-year-old female patient with history of severe persistent asthma with an eosinophil's baseline of 1403 cells/mm3. She was started on Dupilumab a month prior to presenting to our hospital with shortness of breath, facial rash, recurrent fever and fatigue. Upon further investigations, patient was found to have severe peripheral eosinophilia (35%, absolute eosinophil count of 6100 cells/mm3), imaging studies that included CT scan of the chest showed patchy pulmonary consolidations, ground glass opacification and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Non-invasive infectious work up including COVID-19 was negative. Then, patient underwent fiberoptic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), transbronchial biopsy, ultrasound guided lymph node fine needle aspiration and endobronchial biopsy (for diffuse endobronchial nodular lesions). Infectious work up from the BAL was negative but the BAL cytology showed eosinophilic alveolitis (31%). Histopathologic examination of the above biopsies showed significant interstitial inflammation with predominant eosinophils. Subsequently, Dupilumab was discontinued, and patient was started on prednisone 60 mg daily with remarkable eosinophils count reduction from a peak of 11,232 to 84 cells/mm3 along with significant improvement in her symptoms. CT chest 8 weeks later showed near complete resolution of pulmonary opacities. DISCUSSION: Dupilumab is an effective treatment for moderate to severe persistent asthma, by lowering rates of asthma exacerbation, as well as better lung function and asthma control. However, it has been reported that dupilumab can rarely cause a state of significant hyper-eosinophilia, which can rarely lead to complications such as eosinophilic pneumonia. Our patient was treated with dupilumab for her severe persistent asthma and after an intensive work up, we reached a diagnosis of severe Dupilumab induced hyper–eosinophilia leading to eosinophilic pneumonia and skin rash. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that this unique report is an important add to the reports in literature as it describes this rare entity in the differential diagnosis. Monitoring serum eosinophils count closely for the first few weeks of treatment with dupilumab should be considered, particularly for patients with unusual high level of eosinophils at baseline, to prevent severe complications. We believe that more studies are needed to better describe dupilumab induced severe hyper–eosinophilia Reference #1: Pelaia, Corrado, et al. "Dupilumab for the treatment of asthma.” Expert opinion on biological therapy 17.12 (2017): 1565-1572 Reference #2: Castro, Mario, et al. "Dupilumab efficacy and safety in moderate-to-severe uncontrolled asthma.” New England Journal of Medicine 378.26 (2018): 2486-2496 Reference #3: Menzella, Francesco, et al. "A case of chronic eosinophilic pneumonia in a patient treated with dupilumab.” Therapeutics and clinical risk management 15 (2019): 869 DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Hamza Alsaid No relevant relationships by Mark Cowan No relevant relationships by Kamel Gharaibeh no disclosure on file for Kathryn Robinett;Consultant relationship with Medtronic Please note: 1 year Added 04/04/2022 by Ashutosh Sachdeva, value=Consulting fee Consultant relationship with Intuitive Inc Please note: Intermittent Added 04/04/2022 by Ashutosh Sachdeva, value=Consulting fee Consultant relationship with MErit Please note: 2 years Added 04/04/2022 by Ashutosh Sa hdeva, value=Consulting fee Scientific Medical Advisor relationship with AMBU Please note: 6 months Added 04/04/2022 by Ashutosh Sachdeva, value=Consulting fee
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BACKGROUND: Dried blood spots (DBS) have been used for years as a supplementary matrix in sports drug testing. Dried Blood Spots are a promising technique for minimally invasive sample collection in a variety of analytical disciplines, such as therapeutic drug monitoring, preclinical drug development, and diagnostic investigation of metabolic abnormalities in newborns. The increasing potential of DBS has been highlighted in the scientific literature, particularly when it comes to drugs prohibited in world sports. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has planned to incorporate DBS as a new and much more efficient way of assessing the athletes for any prohibited ergogenic aid in upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2021. This literature seeks to evaluate the scope of effectiveness of the DBS method in identification of various banned drugs by examining previous data derived from literatures on DBS. Based on the researches analyzed, it is concluded that DBS methods is very much implementable in identification of variety of ergogenic aids along with being much more efficient way of identification. KEY MESSAGE: DBS method of blood doping analysis can prove to be a new and time saving process of doping analysis in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2021 due to its vast applications & cost effectiveness and considerable safety during COVID-19. © 2021. RED FLOWER PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD. All Rights Reserved.
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Introduction: Indian subcontinent witnessed first wave of COVID-19 around March 2020 and second wave in April 2021. The mutant delta variant was ≈2.5 times more transmissible and led to the severe second wave. We compared the impact of two waves on pediatric hematology and oncology patients at our tertiary care centre that was at heart of managing COVID-19. Methods: Children between 0 and 18 years, who were treated for a haematological illness, malignancy or stem cell transplant with confirmed COVID-19 infection or who developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children were included. Results: A total of 48 (22-first, 26-second wave) children were evaluated. Despite better understanding of disease and standardised management algorithms, we found a trend towards younger age, increased requirements of oxygen, severe pneumonia and other post-covid complications in admitted patients during the second wave. We observed early RTPCR negativity in second wave. Invasive aspergillosis, disseminated candidiasis, reactivation of tuberculosis, HLH and MISC were the main complications. No child died of COVID-19. Conclusion: The second wave hit pediatric hematology and oncology patients harder than the first wave.COVID-19 infection in these patients may lead to significant morbidity and complications that interfere with treatment of their primary illnesses. They need close monitoring for development of life threatening infections. Early recognition and prompt therapy can optimise outcomes.
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Children with malignancies are facing new challenges in post-COVID-19 era. We report an interesting case of a child on treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia having a very protracted course of illness with complications not often seen with standard therapy. It intends to make pediatric oncologists and intensive care specialists wary of potential newer complications.
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Background: The Covid-19 pandemic is a healthcare emergency with a significant impact on cancer services provision. In March 2020, our institution adopted the ESMO expert consensus guidelines for radiotherapy management of rectal cancer during the pandemic. Here we present short-term oncological outcomes of this approach compared to the same period in 2018. Methods: Patients who underwent neoadjuvant (chemo) radiotherapy for rectal cancer between 1st March 2020 and 31 May 2020 were identified from a research ethics committee (REC)-approved research database for cancer patients (Guy’s Cancer Cohort). Patient demographics and treatment characteristics were extracted and compared with a control cohort treated in the same period in 2018. The definition of local response was based on identification of downstaging on re-staging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) post neoadjuvant treatment (mrT3c/d-4 to mrT0-2 and mrT2 to mrT0-1) and classified in a binary format (response vs no response). In addition, in patients who underwent total mesorectal excision (TME), neoadjuvant rectal (NAR) score was calculated, as described previously, and classified into low (<8), intermediate (>=8<=16) and high (>16). The frequency of MRI and pathological response was compared using non-parametric Fisher exact test. Results: Thirty patients were treated in the three-month period in 2020 as compared with 21 in 2018 (43% increase). No statistically significant differences were observed in baseline tumour characteristics. The use of neoadjuvant short-course radiotherapy (SCRT) treatment increased significantly from 19% of cases in 2018 to 50% during the pandemic, which was reflected in reduced radiotherapy-related hospital footfall (median 15 appointments in 2020 vs 25 appointments in 2018). While the use of concomitant fluoropyrimidines was lower (47 vs 71%), the use of induction chemotherapy was higher (30 vs 19%) in 2020 compared to 2018, which may reflect more prevalent use of total neoadjuvant treatment. There was no difference in the proportion of MRI responders between cohorts (52% in 2020 vs 38% in 2018). In patients who underwent TME, there was no difference in the proportion of R1 resection (0 in 2020 vs 9% in 2018), median NAR scores (8 (1-30) in 2020 v 15 (range 4-50) in 2018) or NAR score categories (22% good responders, 64% intermediate and 14% non-responders during Covid-19 vs 9% good responders, 55% intermediate and 36% non-responders in 2018). Conclusions: Changes in radiotherapy treatment of rectal cancer during Covid-19 pandemic, including more frequent use of SCRT (often in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy), did not seem to have negatively impacted short-term oncological outcomes, as measured by MRI downstaging rates and NAR scores following TME. The effect of the pandemic on medium and long-term oncological outcomes is still awaited. Legal entity responsible for the study: The author. Funding: We acknowledge funding support from King’s Health Partners Research and Development Challenge Fund and Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.