Robotic Esophagectomy Compared With Open Esophagectomy Reduces Sarcopenia within the First Postoperative Year: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Sarcopenia is a known risk factor for adverse outcomes after esophageal cancer (EC) surgery. Robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) offers numerous advantages, including reduced morbidity and mortality. However, no evidence exists to date comparing the development of sarcopenia after RAMIE and open esophagectomy (OE). The objective was to evaluate whether the development of sarcopenia within the first postoperative year after esophagectomy is associated with the surgical approach: RAMIE versus OE. METHODS: A total of 168 patients with EC were analyzed who either underwent total robotic or fully open Ivor Lewis esophagectomy in a propensity score-matched analysis. Sarcopenia was assessed using the skeletal muscle index (cm2/m2) and psoas muscle thickness per height (mm/m) on axial computed tomography scans during the first postoperative year; in total 540 computed tomography scans were evaluated. RESULTS: After 1-to-1 propensity score matching for confounders, 67 patients were allocated to RAMIE and OE groups, respectively. Skeletal muscle index in the OE group was significantly lower compared with the RAMIE group at the third (43.2 ± 7.6 cm2/m2 versus 49.1 ± 6.9 cm2/m2, p = 0.001), sixth (42.7 ± 7.8 cm2/m2 versus 51.5 ± 8.2 cm2/m2, p < 0.001) and ninth (43.0 ± 7.0 cm2/m2 versus 49.9 ± 6.6 cm2/m2, p = 0.015) postoperative month. Similar results were recorded for psoas muscle thickness per height. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this study is the first to suggest a substantial benefit of RAMIE compared with open esophagectomy in terms of postoperative sarcopenia. These results add further evidence to support the implementation of the robotic approach in multimodal therapy of EC.

Quantitative prediction of long-term molecular response in TKI-treated CML - Lessons from an imatinib versus dasatinib comparison.

Longitudinal monitoring of BCR-ABL transcript levels in peripheral blood of CML patients treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) revealed a typical biphasic response. Although second generation TKIs like dasatinib proved more efficient in achieving molecular remission compared to first generation TKI imatinib, it is unclear how individual responses differ between the drugs and whether mechanisms of drug action can be deduced from the dynamic data. We use time courses from the DASISION trial to address statistical differences in the dynamic response between first line imatinib vs. dasatinib treatment cohorts and we analyze differences between the cohorts by fitting an established mathematical model of functional CML treatment to individual time courses. On average, dasatinib-treated patients show a steeper initial response, while the long-term response only marginally differed between the treatments. Supplementing each patient time course with a corresponding confidence region, we illustrate the consequences of the uncertainty estimate for the underlying mechanisms of CML remission. Our model suggests that the observed BCR-ABL dynamics may result from different, underlying stem cell dynamics. These results illustrate that the perception and description of CML treatment response as a dynamic process on the level of individual patients is a prerequisite for reliable patient-specific response predictions and treatment optimizations.