Patient-reported physical well-being predicts good long-term survival of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

AIM: This study aimed to explore the association between patient-reported items at different time points after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and long-term survival. METHODS: We conducted a study with 144 allogeneic HSCT patients, following them for 5 years post-transplantation. Data from the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant (FACT-BMT) questionnaire were collected before transplantation and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 36, and 60 months after transplantation. Demographic characteristics and survival status were also assessed. RESULTS: Among the 144 cases, the 5-year overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), non-relapse mortality (NRM), and graft-versus-host disease-free (GRFS) rates were 65%, 48%, 17%, and 36% respectively. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) showed a fluctuating pattern over 5 years. Using a latent class mixed model, patients were classified into two groups based on their physical well-being (PWB) scores during the 60-month follow-up. Class 1 had initially lower PWB scores, which gradually increased over time. In contrast, Class 2 maintained higher PWB scores with slight increases over time. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed that Class 1 had better OS (70.9% vs. 52.9%, p = 0.021), PFS (60.5% vs. 41.2%, p = 0.039), and GRFS (35.1% vs. 29.3%, p = 0.035) compared to Class 2. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who had higher initial PWB scores after HSCT demonstrated improved long-term survival outcomes. The PWB score could serve as a valuable predictor for the prognosis of HSCT.

Nutritional Assessment in Early Allogenic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Patients, a Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Our study aims to comprehensively assess nutrition status and malnutritional prevalence in early allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) patients. METHODS: This single-center, cross-sectional study included 171 patients within the 90 days post-transplantation (from September 2019 to April 2020). Data collected included demographic, 3 day 24-h diet record, a Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) tool, laboratory tests, anthropometric indices, and body composition. RESULTS: One hundred and seventy-one patients with a mean age of 37.8 ± 11.3 and a male to female ratio of 102 to 69 were included. According to PG-SGA, 115 (67.3%) indicated the critical need for nutritional intervention and symptom management (PG-SGA score > 9). Forty-three (43.3%) of patients had experienced insufficient intakes of energy according to a 24-h diet record. Our study found that 120 (70.2%) patients had a body fat percentage and high triacylglycerol (64.9%). Reduced free fat mass index and low hand-grip strength were found in 133 (77.78%) and 104 (60.81%), respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition was 24.6% and the prevalence of sarcopenia was 13.5%. CONCLUSION: Although the prevalence was not high, this research has demonstrated a high risk of malnutrition and a lower muscle mass in early allo-HSCT. Furthermore, our study confirmed body composition assessment would be an excellent way to identify malnutrition precisely.

[Observation of Nutritional Status Changes in Patients with Acute Leukemia During Chemotherapy].

OBJECTIVE: To assess changes of nutritional status by comprehensive nutrition assessment including nutritional risk screening, dietary assessment, blood biochemical index, and body composition in acute leukemia patients who had undergone chemotherapy. METHODS: A total of 169 patients with acute leukemia treated at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from June 2018 to August 2019 were recruited for this study. Before and after chemotherapy, the NRS-2002 and PG-SGA scales, dietary intake, blood biochemical index and body composition were evaluated to compare the changes of nutritional status. RESULTS: NRS-2002 score and PG-SGA score after chemotherapy were significantly increased than those before chemotherapy (P<0.001). Many patients had insufficient nutritional intake during chemotherapy, and the dietary intake score of patients with induction chemotherapy was significantly lower than that of patients with consolidation chemotherapy (P=0.043). The results of multivariate analysis showed that induction chemotherapy was the independent risk factor for the increase of PG-SGA scores and the decrease of dietary intake (all P<0.05). After chemotherapy, the white blood cell count, hemoglobin, and platelet count were significantly decreased (P<0.001), the prealbumin was significantly increased (P<0.001), and the blood glucose was increased (P=0.04), but albumin was not significantly changed. The weight, body mass index, fat-free mass, skeletal muscle mass and intracellular water were all significantly decreased (P<0.001), and visceral fat area was increased significantly after chemotherapy (P<0.05), especially in newly-diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients after the induction of chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: The nutritional status of patients with acute leukemia has undergone significant changes after chemotherapy. A single indicator has limited significance for nutritional status assessment. Comprehensive assessment of nutritional status by multiple tools is worthy of clinical application.

[Variability of vegetation growth season in different latitudinal zones of North China: a monitoring by NOAA NDVI and MSAVI].

In this study, North China was latitudinally divided into five zones, i.e., 32 degrees - 36 degrees N (Zone I), 36 degrees - 40 degrees N (Zone II), 40 degrees - 44 degrees N (Zone III), 44 degrees - 48 degrees N (Zone IV) and 48 degrees - 52 degrees N (Zone V), and the NOAA/ AVHRR NDVI and MSAVI time-series images from 1982 to 1999 were smoothed with Savitzky-Golay filter algorithm. Based on the EOF analysis, the principal components of NDVI and MSAVI for the vegetations in different latitudinal zones of North China were extracted, the annual beginning and ending dates and the length of growth season in 1982 - 1999 were estimated, and the related parameters were linearly fitted, aimed to analyze the variability of vegetation growth season. The results showed that the beginning date of the growth season in different zones tended to be advanced, while the ending date tended to be postponed with increasing latitude. The length of the growth season was also prolonged, with the prolonging time exceeded 10 days.