Oral compound probiotic supplements can improve the quality of life for patients with lung cancer during chemotherapy: A randomized placebo-controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapy is an important approach for lung cancer patients. The study was designed to evaluate the feasibility of the compound probiotic supplements in improving the quality of life for lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled chemotherapy-naive patients with lung cancer who were scheduled to receive platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. All eligible patients were randomly administered (1:1) compound probiotic supplements (group BP-1) or placebo (group C) for two chemotherapy cycles. The EORTC QLQ C30 questionnaire scores were evaluated before the first, second, and third cycles of chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was the difference in the EROTC QLQ C30 questionnaire score between the two groups after two cycles of chemotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 110 patients were recruited from March 2021 to January 2022. After undergoing two cycles of chemotherapy, group BP-1 were significantly better in various dimensions of the overall quality of life, role function, nausea and vomiting, appetite loss, constipation, and diarrhea relative to group C (76.90 ± 18.31 vs. 58.89 ± 17.17; 93.33 ± 11.58 vs. 85.93 ± 15.06; 0.00 ± 0.00 vs. 27.04 ± 29.15; 6.67 ± 13.53 vs. 22.22 ± 18.80; 0.95 ± 5.63 vs. 28.15 ± 22.42; 2.86 ± 9.47 vs. 15.56 ± 16.82; p < 0.05, respectively). The incidence of nausea and vomiting, appetite loss, constipation, and diarrhea in group BP-1 was significantly lower than in group C (0% vs. 71.43%, 16.67% vs. 57.14%, 2.38% vs. 63.27%, and 7.14% vs. 42.86%, respectively, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Compound probiotic supplements can improve the quality of life and relieve chemotherapy-related gastrointestinal side effects for lung cancer patients receiving platinum-based doublet chemotherapy. (Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR1800019269).

Knowledge Difference of Tumor Nutrition Risk Among Thoracic Cancer Patients, Their Family Members, Physicians, and Nurses.

To investigate the difference among patients, family members, physicians, and nurses in their ability to identify malnutrition risk in patients with thoracic cancer. The enrolled patients were evaluated by the NRS2002 nutritional risk scale. The patient-centered groups, including the patient, the primary caretaker, the physician, and the nurse, were given a questionnaire on their knowledge and understanding of nutrition therapy in cancer treatment. The incidence rate of nutritional risk in hospitalized patients with thoracic cancer was 13.8%. There were significant differences in the accuracy rate of nutritional risk assessment among the four groups (P < 0.001), in which the nurses' was 70.3%, 55.1% for the physician, 38.7% for family members, and 33.0% for patients, which was the poorest accuracy rate. No significant correlation was found between the accuracy of nutritional risk assessment and the education level and personal monthly income of each population (P > 0.05). Nearly all four groups considered it necessary to learn more about cancer nutrition therapy. For patients and their families, the main way to understand the knowledge of tumor nutrition was consultation with medical staff and information exchange between patients; for doctors, new media; and for nurses, classroom training. Nurses' assessment of nutritional risk in cancer patients achieved the highest accuracy, while the poorest accuracy originated from the patients.

Overall survival benefit of continuing immune checkpoint inhibitors treatment post dissociated response in patients with advanced lung cancer.

PURPOSE: Dissociated response (DR, reduction at baseline or increase < 20% in target lesions compared with nadir in the presence of new lesions) was observed in 20-34% of patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). DRs were defined as progression disease (PD) per response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST v1.1), while evaluation criteria related to immunotherapy incorporated the new lesions into the total tumor burden or conducted further evaluation after 4-8 weeks rather than declaring PD immediately. The main objective of this study is to compare survival between people who continuing initial ICIs treatment and those who switched to other anticancer therapy at the time of DR. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 235 patients with advanced lung cancer (LC) treated with ICIs were evaluated. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to minimize potential confounding factors. Post-DR OS, target lesion changes were evaluated. RESULTS: 52 patients had been estimated as DRs. After PSM, the continuing ICIs treatment Post-DR cohort still had a significantly longer median post-DR OS than discontinuing ICIs treatment Post-DR cohort, 10.63 months (95% CI 6.27-NA) versus 4.33 months (95% CI 1.77-NA), respectively (p = 0.016). CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this single-center retrospective analysis, clinically stable patients who were judged by clinicians to be eligible for continuing ICIs treatment post-DR derived apparent OS benefit than discontinuing counterpart.

Prognosis of limited-stage small cell lung cancer with comprehensive treatment including radical resection.

BACKGROUND: The NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN guidelines) recommend radical resection for T1-2N0M0 patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC). However, only about 5% of patients with small cell cancer (SCLC) were initially diagnosed as T1-2N0M0. The purpose of our study was to analyze and compare the effects of the comprehensive treatment including radical surgery and concurrent chemoradiotherapy on the prognosis of patients with LS-SCLC. METHODS: We comprehensively reviewed the medical data of patients with SCLC diagnosed by pathology in our hospital from January 2011 to April 2018. The Ethics Committee of West China Hospital of Sichuan University approved the study. Finally, 50 patients with good follow-up and complete medical data were selected as the surgical group (S group). According to the clinical characteristics of the patients in the S group, 102 LS-SCLC patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy in the same period were included in the CCRT group (concurrent chemoradiotherapy group) as the control group. Then according to the orders of the adjuvant treatments, the patients in the S group were divided into the SA group (radical surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy + adjuvant radiotherapy group, 30 cases in total) and the NS group (neoadjuvant chemotherapy + radical surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy ± adjuvant radiotherapy group, 20 cases in total) for subgroup analysis. The SPSS 23.0 software was used for statistical analysis, and the t test was used for group comparison; Kaplan-Meier was used for survival analysis. P < 0.05 demonstrates a statistically significant difference. RESULTS: The median progress-free survival (PFS) in the S group (73 months) was significantly better than that in the CCRT group (10.5 months, P < 0.0001), and the median overall survival (OS) in the S group (79 months) was also significantly better than that in the CCRT group (23 months, P < 0.0001). Subgroup analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the NS group and the SA group. CONCLUSIONS: For LS-SCLC patients, the comprehensive treatment including radical surgery (radical surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy ± adjuvant radiotherapy/neoadjuvant chemotherapy + radical surgery + adjuvant chemotherapy ± adjuvant radiotherapy)may be superior to concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

T790M mutation in stage IV EGFR-mutated NSCLC patient with acquired resistance reverted to original 19Del mutation after administration of a series of precision treatments: a case report.

Existing studies have yet to elucidate clearly the mechanisms of secondary resistance to third generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), neither is there any established standard therapy for patients resistant to third generation EGFR-TKIs. This case report demonstrates a rare mutation pattern in a male patient with a pathologic diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring an EGFR exon 19 deletion (19Del) mutation, who then acquired an EGFR-T790M mutation after developing resistance to the first generation EGFR-TKI (gefitinib). The mutation reverted to the original EGFR-19Del mutation after the patient developed secondary resistance against the third generation TKI (osimertinib). This patient eventually achieved partial response (PR) with second generation TKI (afatinib) as a fourth-line treatment.

[Computational fluid dynamics analysis of the flow of four irrigations in root canal].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the flow of four irrigations in a root canal with different needle-insertion depth by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in order to provide a reference to the needle placement in clinical practice. METHODS: The density and viscosity of 5.25% sodium hypochlorite (A), 3% sodium hypochlorite (B), 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA, C), 2% chlorhexidine (D) were measured. A CFD model by ICEM software was used to simulate irrigant flow from an open-ended flat needle positioned at the depth of 1, 3, 5 mm to the physiological apical within the root canal. Velocity, wall shear stress and pressure in the root canal were evaluated after setting the computing conditions with FLUENT14.0 software. RESULTS: All the wall shear stress generated by four fluids was at peak when the needle was positioned 1 mm to the physiological apical, which were 6.72 × 10³ Pa(A), 6.35 × 10³ Pa(B), 7.47 × 10³ Pa(C), 5.26 × 10³ Pa(D), respectively. With the distance increasing, wall shear stress gradually decreased. The wall shear stress of A, B, C, D was 2.31 × 10³, 2.05 × 10³, 2.59 × 10³ and 1.81 × 10³ Pa, respectively in 3 mm group. The wall shear stress of A, B, C, D was 2.16 × 10³, 1.91 × 10³, 2.42 × 10³, 1.71 × 10³ Pa, respectively in 5 mm group. CONCLUSIONS: It was recommended that the distance between the needle and physiological apical is 1-3 mm when flushing the root canal. The injection speed of 17% EDTA should be slower than that of the other three solutions.

miR-433 inhibits oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cell growth and metastasis by targeting HDAC6.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine expression levels of miR-433 in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and adjacent normal tissues, and explore its biological functions in OSCCs. METHODS: miR-433 level in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and adjacent normal tissues was tested by real-time qPCR. The effect of miR-433 on cell growth was detected by MTT and colony formation assays. The tumorigenicity of miR-433 transfected OSCCs was evaluated in nude mice model. Transwell and wound healing assays were performed to detect the effect of miR-433 on OSCCs cell invasion and migration. Luciferase reporter gene assays were performed to identify the interaction between miR-433 and 3'UTR of HDAC6 mRNA. The protein level of HDAC6, BCL2, CCNE1, MMP1 and MMP9 was determined by Western blotting. Immunohistochemistry analysis was performed to detect the expression of HDAC6 in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) and adjacent normal tissues. RESULTS: We found that miR-433 was frequently down-regulated in OSCCs compared with adjacent normal tissues. Restoring miR-433 expression in OSCC cells dramatically suppressed cells growth, invasion and migration. Importantly, our data showed that miR-433 downregulated the expression of HDAC6 through directly targeting its 3'UTR. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that miR-433 exerts its tumor suppressor function by targeting HDAC6, leading to the inhibition of OSCC cell growth, invasion and migration, which suggest that miR-433 may be potential target for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in OSCC.

Sonodynamic effect of hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether on ligature-induced periodontitis in rats.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to perform a histological evaluation of sonodynamic therapy (SDT) of hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME) on artificially induced periodontal disease in rats. METHODS: Submerging ligatures were placed at the subgingival region of the first maxillary molar in rats. Eighty rats were randomly assigned into four groups: group 1 received no treatment; group 2 was subjected to 50 µg/mL HMME alone; group 3 was treated with low-intensity ultrasound alone (1 W/cm(2)); and group 4 was treated with 50 µg/mL HMME plus ultrasound irradiation (1 MHz, 30 minutes). Ten rats in each group were euthanized at 7 and 15 days, and periodontal tissue samples were taken for histological examination. RESULTS: The animals treated by SDT showed less bone loss (P<0.05) at all experimental periods than the other three groups. No significant differences were found between the control and HMME groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that HMME-mediated SDT can effectively alleviate the periodontal tissue destruction in artificially induced periodontitis in rats. Hence, SDT may have good clinic potential as a noninvasive treatment of periodontal diseases.

Sonodynamic effects of hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether on Staphylococcus aureus in vitro.

This study aims to investigate the effect of hematoporphyrin monomethyl ether (HMME)-mediated sonodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (SACT) on Staphylococcus aureus. SACT was carried out using HMME and 1 MHz ultrasound irradiation. The bactericidal effect was evaluated by the counting colony-forming units (CFU), and important SACT parameters including ultrasound intensity and HMME concentration were determined. More than 95% of the bacteria colonies were effectively killed in the SACT group by 50 µg mL(-1) HMME combined with 6 W cm(-2) tone-burst ultrasound at 1 MHz, but this ultrasound level without HMME only reduced CFU by 38%. In the sonodynamic treatment, higher HMME concentrations and higher ultrasound intensities caused more death of bacteria. Incubation with different HMME concentrations without ultrasound showed no effect. Our results show that the HMME-mediated SACT can be significantly in killing S. aureus.

CYP1B1 Asn453Ser polymorphism and colorectal cancer risk: a meta-analysis.

Studies investigating the association between cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) Asn453Ser (453 A/G, rs1800440) polymorphism and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk report conflicting results. The aim of this study was to quantitatively summarize the evidence for such a relationship. Two investigators independently searched the Medline and Embase Databases. Summary odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for CYP1B1 polymorphism and CRC were calculated in a fixed-effects model (the Mantel-Haenszel method) and a random-effects model (the DerSimonian and Laird method) when appropriate. The pooled ORs were performed for co-dominant model (GG vs AA, GA vs AA), dominant model (GG+GA vs AA), and recessive model (GG vs GA+AA). This meta-analysis included 7 case-control studies, which included 6375 CRC cases and 7003 controls. Overall, the variant genotypes (GG and GA) of the 453 A/G were not associated with CRC risk when compared with the wild-type AA homozygote (GG vs AA, OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.77-1.14; GA vs AA, OR=0.99, 95% CI=0.87-1.12). Similarly, no associations were found in the dominant and recessive models (dominant model, OR=0.98, 95% CI=0.87-1.09; recessive model, OR=0.94, 95% CI=0.77-1.14). When stratifying for country, study sample size, matched control and source of controls, no evidence of significant association was observed in any subgroup, except among those studies from "Canada". No publication bias was found in the present study. No association was found between the CYP1B1 Asn453Ser polymorphism and risk of CRC among Caucasians.