Impact of metformin use on survival outcomes in non-small cell lung cancer treated with platinum.

Preclinical evidence suggests that metformin, a widely used antidiabetic drug, may have a sensitizing effect on platinum. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the survival outcomes for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using metformin during platinum-based chemotherapy.The clinicopathological parameters and survival data of 75 NSCLC patients with T2DM from January 2008 to December 2011 were collected and analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into 2 groups: metformin exposure group (n = 27) and non-metformin group (patients using other hypoglycemic agents or no drug for controlling n = 48). Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the association of metformin usage with overall survival (OS).Mean follow-up time was 58.7 months. The mean survival time was 36.74 months in the metformin group and 40.21 months in the non-metformin group. There was no significant difference in survival time between the 2 groups (P = .661). After adjusting gender, age, smoking status, tumor stage, tumor histology, and differentiation, multivariate analysis showed that metformin was not associated with the OS in NSCLC patients treated with concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy (hazard ratio: 1.071, 95% confidence interval: 0.577-1.986, P = .828).Our results indicated that metformin exposure had no significant effect on OS in NSCLC patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. Further studies are warranted to evaluate whether metformin could affect the survival of NSCLC patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.

On-line monitoring of traditional Chinese medicinal powder blending process by using near-infrared spectroscopy / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE: To establish a rapid method based on near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (NIR) to monitor the blending process of traditional Chinese medicinal powder on-line. METHODS: NIR spectra were collected during the blending processes of mixtures consisting of Red Peony Root powder and defatted Spine Date Seed powder. Multivariate calibration models based on PLS regression were developed to correlate the collected spectra with the content of Red Peony Root powder. The optimal calibration model was applied to monitor the blending process in real time with noninterference. RESULTS: After spectral pretreatment using multiplicative signal correction (MSC), first derivative and Savitzky-Golay filter, Red Peony Root powder contents were quantified using PLS algorithm in the spectral ranges of 5900-5950 cm-1, 6700-6750 cm-1 and 6950-7100 cm-1. The correlation coefficient of the calibration model was 0.9990. The RMSEC, RMSEP and RMSECV were 1.14, 1.16 and 1.26, respectively. CONCLUSION: It was demonstrated that a miniature near-infrared analyzer could be used to monitor the contents of the constituents and the blending homogeneity of traditional Chinese medicinal powder in real time, and to rapidly determine the end-point of blending process. In addition, it can be used to judge whether the physical state of powder mixture conforms to the standard. Therefore, NIR spectroscopy is considered to be an appropriate PAT tool for end-point control of blending process of traditional Chinese medicinal powder.