Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor has the potential to attenuate the therapeutic efficacy of chemo-immunotherapy for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has the potential to attenuate the anti-tumor immune responses of T-cells by increasing immune suppressive neutrophils and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. However, the clinical impact of G-CSF on the efficacy of immunotherapy remains unknown. This multi-center retrospective analysis evaluated the impact of G-CSF in patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) treated with chemo-immunotherapy. METHODS: We analyzed 65 patients with ES-SCLC who completed four cycles of induction chemo-immunotherapy and evaluated the effects of G-CSF on progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and a durable response to immunotherapy (defined as PFS ≥ 12 months). RESULTS: Fifty patients (76.9%) received ≥ 1 dose of G-CSF. The PFS of the patients with G-CSF was poorer than that of the patients without G-CSF (median PFS 8.3 vs. 4.9 months, p = 0.009). The OS of the patients with G-CSF tended to be shorter, but not statistically significant, than that of the patients without G-CSF (median OS 24.3 vs. 16.4 months, p = 0.137). In the multivariate analysis, G-CSF administration was associated with poorer PFS (hazard ratio 2.78, 95% CI 1.36-5.69, p = 0.005) and was identified as a determinant of a durable response (odds ratio 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.80, p = 0.024). These results were consistent with other definitions of G-CSF administration (administration of ≥ 1 dose of pegfilgrastim, or either ≥ 5 doses of filgrastim or ≥ 1 dose of pegfilgrastim). CONCLUSIONS: G-CSF has the potential to attenuate the efficacy of immunotherapy; therefore, the indication for G-CSF during chemo-immunotherapy should be carefully considered for ES-SCLC.

An Another Protocol to Make Sulfur Embedded Ultrathin Sections of Extraterrestrial Small Samples.

Another protocol to make sulfur embedded ultrathin sections was developed for STXM-XANES, AFM-IR and TEM analyses of organic materials in small extraterrestrial samples. Polymerized liquid sulfur-instead of low-viscosity liquid sulfur-is the embedding media in this protocol. Due to high viscosity of the polymerized sulfur, the embedded samples stay near the surface of polymerized liquid sulfur, which facilitates trimming of glassy sulfur and ultramicrotomy of tiny embedded samples. In addition, well-continued ribbons of ultramicrotomed sections can be obtained, which are suitable for the above mentioned analyses. Because there is no remarkable difference in Carbon XANES spectra of Murchison IOM prepared by this protocol and by the conventional protocol, this protocol gives another alternative to prepare sulfur embedded ultramicrotomed sections.