Azithromycin for treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients: a randomised, multicentre, open-label clinical trial (DAWn-AZITHRO).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Azithromycin was rapidly adopted as a repurposed drug to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) early in the pandemic. We aimed to evaluate its efficacy in patients hospitalised for COVID-19. METHODS: In a series of randomised, open-label, phase 2 proof-of-concept, multicentre clinical trials (Direct Antivirals Working against the novel coronavirus (DAWn)), several treatments were compared with standard of care. In 15 Belgian hospitals, patients hospitalised with moderate to severe COVID-19 were allocated 2:1 to receive standard of care plus azithromycin or standard of care alone. The primary outcome was time to live discharge or sustained clinical improvement, defined as a two-point improvement on the World Health Organization (WHO) ordinal scale sustained for at least 3 days. RESULTS: Patients were included between April 22 and December 17, 2020. When 15-day follow-up data were available for 160 patients (56% of preset cohort), an interim analysis was performed at request of the independent Data Safety and Monitoring Board. Subsequently, DAWn-AZITHRO was stopped for futility. In total, 121 patients were allocated to the treatment arm and 64 patients to the standard-of-care arm. We found no effect of azithromycin on the primary outcome with a hazard ratio of 1.044 (95% CI 0.772-1.413; p=0.7798). None of the predefined subgroups showed significant interaction as covariates in the Fine-Gray regression analysis. No benefit of azithromycin was found on any of the short- and longer-term secondary outcomes. CONCLUSION: Time to clinical improvement is not influenced by azithromycin in patients hospitalised with moderate to severe COVID-19.

The Benefit of a Surgical Resection of a Solitary Pulmonary Metastasis of Prostate Cancer after Radical Prostatectomy.

Historically, a solitary pulmonary metastasis of prostate cancer was considered as metastatic or disseminated disease and could only be treated systemically. However, some patients may benefit from surgical metastasectomy of a solitary pulmonary metastasis. We present an uncommon case of resection of a solitary pulmonary metastasis of prostate cancer after previous radical prostatectomy, resulting in un-detectable prostate specific antigen.

Detection of Lung Cancer through Metabolic Changes Measured in Blood Plasma.

INTRODUCTION: Low-dose computed tomography, the currently used tool for lung cancer screening, is characterized by a high rate of false-positive results. Accumulating evidence has shown that cancer cell metabolism differs from that of normal cells. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate whether the metabolic phenotype of blood plasma allows detection of lung cancer. METHODS: The proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum of plasma is divided into 110 integration regions, representing the metabolic phenotype. These integration regions reflect the relative metabolite concentrations and were used to train a classification model in discriminating between 233 patients with lung cancer and 226 controls. The validity of the model was examined by classifying an independent cohort of 98 patients with lung cancer and 89 controls. RESULTS: The model makes it possible to correctly classify 78% of patients with lung cancer and 92% of controls, with an area under the curve of 0.88. Important moreover is the fact that the model is convincing, which is demonstrated by validation in the independent cohort with a sensitivity of 71%, a specificity of 81%, and an area under the curve of 0.84. Patients with lung cancer have increased glucose and decreased lactate and phospholipid levels. The limited number of patients in the subgroups and their heterogeneous nature do not (yet) enable differentiation between histological subtypes and tumor stages. CONCLUSIONS: Metabolic phenotyping of plasma allows detection of lung cancer, even in an early stage. Increased glucose and decreased lactate levels are pointing to an increased gluconeogenesis and are in accordance with recently published findings. Furthermore, decreased phospholipid levels confirm the enhanced membrane synthesis.

Anaphylaxis in an airplane after insecticide spraying.

Flights departing from malarious areas are sprayed with pyrethroids. They are presumed to be safe since reports of adverse responses among passengers or crew were only anecdotal. However, asthmatic reactions after domestic and occupational exposure have been published. We present the first case description of pyrethroid allergy in an airplane.

Influence of cisplatin-use, age, performance status and duration of chemotherapy on symptom control in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: detailed symptom analysis of a randomised study comparing cisplatin-vindesine to gemcitabine.

BACKGROUND: We previously reported that treatment of patients with symptomatic advanced non-small cell lung cancer with single agent Gemcitabine (GEM) resulted in a superior clinical-benefit response rate (RR) compared to cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy. We now report the detailed individual symptom control analysis, and the influence of cisplatin-use, age, performance status (PS) and duration of treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients received either GEM (1000 mg/m(2), days 1, 8 and 15) or cisplatin (100 mg/m(2), day 1) plus Vindesine (3 mg/m(2), days 1 and 15) (PV), both every 4 weeks. Scores of 9 symptoms were listed weekly by the patient on visual analogue scales. Improvement of a symptom was defined as 2 consecutive cycles of improvement over baseline. RESULTS: Baseline symptoms in the 169 patients were well balanced between the 2 arms (84 GEM, 85 PV). Both patients with objective response and disease stabilisation had clearly better symptom control than those with disease progression. Symptom control in both arms was similar for 'disease-specific' symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, pain or haemoptysis. Compared to PV, a significantly larger number of GEM-patients had better scores for 'constitutional' items such as anorexia (P=0.007), ability to carry on with daily activities (P=0.04) and overall impression of quality-of-life (P=0.008). Symptom control was very similar in younger (<65 years) versus older (>/=65 years) patients, and only slightly better in those with a Karnofsky PS >/=80% compared to those <80%. Most of the symptom improvement occurred in the first 3 cycles, with some further symptom improvement in the following cycles in the GEM-arm only. CONCLUSIONS: Both GEM and PV yield a symptom control rate much higher than expected by the objective tumour RR. GEM is equally effective in controlling 'disease-specific' symptoms, but superior in controlling 'constitutional' symptoms. Most of the symptom control was achieved during the first 3 cycles of treatment, with some further improvement thereafter in the GEM-arm only.