Experience of quantitative SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening of health-care workers in the southern part of Kyoto city during COVID-19 peri-pandemic period

BackgroundPandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) puts a heavy burden not only on patients physical and mental health but also on regional health care resource and economic activity across the world. Although we accumulate incidence rate and case fatality rate by the multidisciplinary approach, epidemiological data of prevalence of serum severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody in health-care workers during COVID-19 peri-pandemic period is insufficient. MethodsWe prospectively recruited health-care workers from our hospital between April 10 and April 20, 2020. We collected serum samples from these participants and evaluated quantitative SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. ResultsFive (5.4%), 15 (16.3%) and 72 (78.3%) participants showed positive, borderline and negative results of the serum SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody, respectively. We found mean titer of the antibody levels of all, positive group, borderline group and negative group were clearly distinguished. Participants belonging to otolaryngology ward and/or having a history of seasonal common cold symptoms had significantly higher titer of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody (p=0.046, p=0.046, respectively). ConclusionsFive (5.4%) and 15 (16.3%) participants showed positive and borderline SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody during COVID-19 peri-pandemic period. These rates were much higher than the rates expected from situation reports of the government. Higher rates of positive and borderline antibody suggested that COVID-19 had already spread at early stage of pandemic in the southern part of Kyoto city.

Serum lactate dehydrogenase is a possible predictor of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Objective@#The need for tailoring ovarian cancer treatments to individual patients is increasing. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment laboratory test data for predicting the response and survival outcomes of platinumbased chemotherapy in ovarian cancer. @*Methods@#We enrolled 270 patients with ovarian cancer diagnosed at the Kyoto Medical Center (n=120; group A) and Kyoto University (n=150; group B). Data on 9 blood parameters (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio [NLR], platelet to lymphocyte rate [PLR], C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL], low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels), cancer pathology, cancer stage, cytoreduction outcomes, serum cancer antigen 125 levels, platinum-free interval (PFI), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival were assessed retrospectively. @*Results@#NLR, PLR, LDH, and HDL were significantly different in advanced stage patients (P<0.001, <0.001, 0.029, and <0.001, respectively). The Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that high LDH level (≥250 U/L) was associated with reduced PFI (P=0.037 and 0.012) and DFS (P=0.007 and 0.002) in groups A and B, respectively. High NLR (≥4) was associated with reduced DFS in both groups (P=0.036 and 0.005, respectively). LDH showed higher area under the curve (AUC) values in predicting platinum resistance with a PFI of less than 6 months and 12 months (AUC=0.606 and 0.646, respectively) than NLR. In the multivariate analysis, LDH remained significant (P=0.019) after adjusting for the 9 blood parameters. @*Conclusion@#Serum LDH level may possibly predict platinum resistance and prognosis in ovarian cancer and may be useful when developing precision medicine for individual patients.

Serum lactate dehydrogenase is a possible predictor of platinum resistance in ovarian cancer

Objective@#The need for tailoring ovarian cancer treatments to individual patients is increasing. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment laboratory test data for predicting the response and survival outcomes of platinumbased chemotherapy in ovarian cancer. @*Methods@#We enrolled 270 patients with ovarian cancer diagnosed at the Kyoto Medical Center (n=120; group A) and Kyoto University (n=150; group B). Data on 9 blood parameters (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio [NLR], platelet to lymphocyte rate [PLR], C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase [LDH], glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL], low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels), cancer pathology, cancer stage, cytoreduction outcomes, serum cancer antigen 125 levels, platinum-free interval (PFI), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival were assessed retrospectively. @*Results@#NLR, PLR, LDH, and HDL were significantly different in advanced stage patients (P<0.001, <0.001, 0.029, and <0.001, respectively). The Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that high LDH level (≥250 U/L) was associated with reduced PFI (P=0.037 and 0.012) and DFS (P=0.007 and 0.002) in groups A and B, respectively. High NLR (≥4) was associated with reduced DFS in both groups (P=0.036 and 0.005, respectively). LDH showed higher area under the curve (AUC) values in predicting platinum resistance with a PFI of less than 6 months and 12 months (AUC=0.606 and 0.646, respectively) than NLR. In the multivariate analysis, LDH remained significant (P=0.019) after adjusting for the 9 blood parameters. @*Conclusion@#Serum LDH level may possibly predict platinum resistance and prognosis in ovarian cancer and may be useful when developing precision medicine for individual patients.