Improvement in immune dysfunction after FOLFOX chemotherapy for Stage III colon cancer is associated with improved minimal residual disease prognostic subtype and outcome.

AIM: Minimal residual disease (MRD) is the net result of the biological properties of disseminated tumour cells and the effect of the immune system and treatment to eliminate them. The aim of this work is to report the changes in MRD status and immune function (lymphocyte count) after FOLFOX chemotherapy, and the outcome in Stage III colon cancer patients. METHOD: This study is a prospective, single-centre observational study. Lymphocyte counts were determined prior to and 1, 2 and 3 months after the completion of chemotherapy. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and bone marrow micrometastases were determined using immunocytochemistry with anticarcinoembryonic antigen prior to and 1 month after chemotherapy. MRD was classified as negative (Group I), micrometastasis positive only (Group II) and CTC positive (Group III). Changes in lymphocyte counts and MRD subtype following chemotherapy and relapse-free progression were analysed. RESULTS: Of the total of 185 patients, 83 (44.9%) relapsed. The risk of relapse significantly increased from Groups I to III (p < 0.001) and with decreasing lymphocyte count (p < 0.01). The lymphocyte count significantly decreased from Groups I to III (p < 0.001). Multivariance Cox regression analysis showed hazard ratios of 3.58 (Group II), 17.43 (Group III) and 0.39 (lymphocyte count) in predicting relapse. Following chemotherapy, improved lymphocyte count was associated with improved MRD subtype (p < 0.0001). Neither baseline lymphocyte count nor MRD subtype predicted response to chemotherapy. Five-year relapse-free survival for combined lymphocyte-MRD subtypes was 95%, 57% and 5% for Groups I to III, respectively (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Following chemotherapy, improvements in immune function were associated with improved MRD subtype and a better relapse-free survival.

Light backscattering as an indirect method for detecting emulsion inversion.

Many phenomena take place during different types of emulsion inversions, particularly a change in interface curvature and drop size, which could be detected by backward light scattering. Monitoring the backscattering signal allows us to detect the emulsion inversion in three main cases, one transitional and two catastrophic types. The backscattering data could give some clue as to emulsion morphology, which is not available from conductivity measurements.

Complex emulsion inversion pattern associated with the partitioning of nonionic surfactant mixtures in the presence of alcohol cosurfactant.

Commercial ethoxylated nonionic surfactant mixtures containing alcohol cosurfactant exhibit a three-phase behavior whose formulation strongly varies with the water/oil ratio. As a consequence, a change in water/oil ratio can result in a sequence of up to three different emulsion inversion processes, through a combination of formulation and composition effects.