tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Analysis of global gene expression in adrenocortical tumors from Li-Fraumeni syndrome <i>TP53</i> germline mutation carriers.
Authors: Fernanda Fortes, Hellen Kuasne, Fabio Marchi, Karina Miranda Santiago, Silvia Regina Rogatto, Maria Isabel Waddington Achatz
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

1562 Background: Li Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) is a rare autosomal dominant hereditary cancer syndrome. In Brazil, a variant form of LFS is often due to a founder mutation p.R337H TP53. The occurrence of cancer in patients and the age of onset may vary even in patients who carry the same mutation. Patients with mutations in TP53 gene may develop a broad spectrum of tumors, including adrenocortical carcinomas (ADR). The objective of this study was to evaluate the global gene expression profile of ADR in patients with and without p.R337H TP53 mutation. Methods: Analysis of global gene expression was evaluated by microarray (4x44K, Agilent Technologies). Results: The presence of 135 differentially expressed genes between the ADR patients with and without p.R337H TP53mutation was detected. Genes which have increased expression and are related to a worse prognosis in adrenocortical carcinoma were identified with decreased expression in carriers of p.R337H mutation. Conclusions: This study suggests that a differential expression profile of transcripts in ADR p.R337H TP53 germline mutation carriers may act as modifiers and exert a protective effect in Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients.
Role of paclitaxel and platinum-based chemotherapy in locally advanced and metastatic penile squamous cell carcinoma.
Authors: Romualdo Barroso-Sousa, Rodrigo Santa Cruz Guindalini, Marcelo Vailati Negrao, Denyei Nakazato, Camila Motta Venchiarutti Moniz, Tiago Kenji Takahashi, Carlos Dzik
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e15624 Background: Although penile squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC) is chemosensitive, the treatment of advanced disease is still controversial. There is no prospective randomized study to date, and treatment guidelines are mostly based on single-arm studies with a small number of patients. The objectives of our study were to determine activity and safety of paclitaxel and platinum doublet chemotherapy in patients with advanced PSCC. Methods: In a retrospective analysis, eligible patients (pts) were aged 18 years and over, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) of 60 or more, with histologically proven PSCC staged as locally advanced (any T-N2 or N3; or T3-N1) or metastatic, treated with a combination of cisplatin/carboplatin plus paclitaxel. Clinical and radiological parameters were evaluated, as well as chemotherapy-related adverse events (AE) according with CTCAE version 3.0. Median OS was estimated by Kaplan–Meier method. Results: From 41 pts with advanced PSCC treated with chemotherapy at our Institution between 2009 and 2012, 19 were eligible (12 pts received paclitaxel plus cisplatin and 7 pts received paclitaxel plus carboplatin). Median age at beginning of chemotherapy was 49.5 years (range 27-78 years). Seven (36.8%) patients presented KPS 60-70 and 12 (63.2%) presented KPS > 70. Patients received a median of 4 cycles of chemotherapy (range 1-8). In 13 evaluable patients, 3 (23.0%) exhibited a radiological partial response, 5 (38.5%) had stable disease (SD) in response to treatment, and 5 (38.5%) experienced disease progression. Median OS was 16.8 months (95% CI = 3.2 – 30.4). Grade 3 AE were reported in three pts (2 vomiting, 1 hypomagnesemia). No patient had grade ≥2 neutropenia. One patient died after developing deep venous thrombosis and inguinal lymph node bleeding. Subsequent treatment was provided to 12 pts (7 pts received second-line chemotherapy, 5 pts underwent surgery, and 6 received radiation therapy). Conclusions: The platinum and paclitaxel doublet chemotherapy is associated with a moderate response rate and is well tolerated in non-selected advanced PSCC pts and warrants further investigation.
Time for a “Plan B” in Peritoneal Metastatic Disease
Authors: Claudio Tripodo
Journal: Cancer Research (2019)

Abstract Peritoneal involvement in cancer is the harbinger of a particularly unfavorable prognosis. The peritoneal cavity microenvironment is skewed toward immunoregulatory conditions promoted by macrophage populations and innate-like B-1 B cells, which provide immune privilege to malignant cell foci. In this issue of Cancer Research, Haro and colleagues demonstrate that triggering innate IgM-mediated B-1a immune responses via pathogen- or danger-associated molecular pattern recognition exerts antitumor effects on peritoneal metastases by inducing classical complement cascade activation. Exploitation of innate B-1 humoral responses and noncellular immunity is a promising strategy to counter the “castling” of metastatic tumor cells in the peritoneal immunoprivileged site. See related article by Haro et al., p. 159
Body weight and composition changes, primary tumor side, and resection as survival predictors in metastatic colorectal cancer.
Authors: Jan Franko, Tara Michelle Graff, Christian McClairen
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2018)

850 Background: Common symptoms of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) are sarcopenia and weight loss. We investigated whether weight loss, sarcopenia and primary tumor resection can predict overall survival among patients (pts) with mCRC Methods: Consecutive pts newly diagnosed with mCRC in a community hospital between 2012-2014 we reviewed. We gathered initial and 6-month follow up data on weight, standardized muscle mass measure (estimated psoas muscle area/m 2 height, sEPA) and subcutaneous fat (SQ). Results: There were 109 pts (age 66.9±14.5, range 37-93 years). Chemotherapy recipients were younger (n = 59, 61.2±13.3 years) and survived longer (22.3 versus 5.3 months, p &lt; 0.001) as compared to best supportive care patients (n = 50, 73.6±13.0 years, p &lt; 0.001). There were no baseline and 6-month differences between pts with resected versus in situ primary tumor in age (p = 0.074), baseline weight (p = 0.728) or percent weight loss (p = 0.404), albumin (p = 0.322), hemoglobin (p = 0.301), creatinine (p = 0.791), initial standardized EPA (p = 0.866), percent of sEPA loss (p = 0.952), and percent subcutaneous thickness loss (p = 0.477). Cohort was further dichotomized by median anthropometric changes at 6 months: -7.1% for weight loss, -6.2% sEPA, -3.3% SQ fat. Cox proportional hazard models demonstrated that anthropometric measures and receipt of systemic chemotherapy were the strongest predictors of survival with their predictive strength surpassing traditional predictors as age, tumor sidedness, primary tumor resection, initial BMI and serum albumin level. Conclusions: Weight loss and anthropometric changes are strongly associated with shorter survival. Prognostic characteristics of loss of weight, muscle and fat should be investigated further using more robust datasets. [Table: see text]
Patients Seeking Care in Emergency Departments Prefer to Nonverbally Disclose Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity—Are We Ready to Act?
Authors: Megan E. Sutter, Matthew B. Schabath, Gwendolyn P. Quinn
Journal: JAMA Network Open (2018)

Adil Haider, MD, MPH; Rachel R. Adler, ScD; Eric Schneider, PhD; Tarsicio Uribe Leitz, MD, MPH; Anju Ranjit, MD, MPH; Christina Ta, BA; Adele Levine, MPH; Omar Harfouch, MD, MPH; Danielle Pelaez, BA; Lisa Kodadek, MD; Laura Vail, MS; Claire Snyder, PhD; Danielle German, PhD; Susan Peterson, MD; Jeremiah D. Schuur, MD, MHS; Brandyn D. Lau, MPH, CPH
Survival and prognostic factors of patients who underwent total en bloc resection of spinal metastasis from renal cell carcinoma.
Authors: Satoshi Kato, Hideki Murakami, Satoru Demura, Katsuhito Yoshioka, Hiroyuki Hayashi, Noriaki Yokogawa, Takayoshi Ishii, Takashi Igarashi, Xiang Fang, Hiroyuki Tsuchiya
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e15548 Background: Total en bloc spondylectomy is a surgical procedure designed to achieve complete resection en bloc of an aggressive benign spinal tumor or a malignant spinal tumor. Owing to development of the surgical technique and excellent clinical results with low morbidity in these decades, total en bloc spondylectomy has been applied in selected patients with surgically curative spinal metastasis. Bone metastases from renal cell carcinoma are highly resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Spinal metastasis is reported as a poor prognostic factor owing to the difficulty of surgical resection. The purpose of this study was to analyze the survival of 34 patients underwent total en bloc spondylectomy for spinal metastasis from renal cell carcinoma in our institute from 1995 to 2010. The survival was analyzed because it seemed to be considerably longer than any reported previously in the literature. Methods: Survival was analyzed with respect to age, gender, presence of lung metastasis, presence of liver or abdominal lymph node metastases, interval between the diagnosis of kidney cancer and that of spinal metastasis, history of nephrectomy, poor risk in MSKCC classification and abnormal levels in serum CRP, LDH, Ca or Alb. Results: Survival for the entire group after surgery was 77% (26/34 patients) at 3 year, 72 % (18/25) at 5 year, and 50% (5/10) at 10 year. Survival after surgery of patients with the metastases in the spine and lung was 75 % (6/8) at 5 year, and 67% (2/3) at 10 year. This is equivalent to that of patients with the single metastasis in the spine with 83 % (10/12) at 5 year, and 50% (3/6) at 10 year. Presence of lung metastasis had no influence on survival. Presence of liver or abdominal lymph node metastases, and poor risk in MSKCC classification were correlated with shorter survival. Conclusions: In the authors’ view, patients without characteristics correlated with shorter survival, and with locally curative spinal metastasis are appropriate candidates for aggressive surgical resection of spinal metastasis. Furthermore, for the good candidates, curative resection of spinal metastasis can have the potential to prolong the survival.
Can social media be used to convey reliable radiation oncology information?
Authors: Nadine Housri
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e17702 Background: As the volume of radiation oncology information increases, the ability to gather and critically appraise high quality information in order to answer clinical questions becomes increasingly challenging for clinicians. Sharing knowledge about new information and practice variations is instrumental to high quality radiation oncology practices. The content of a radiation oncology specific social media question and answer website, themednet.org, was analyzed to determine whether a social media format could provide reliable, data-driven radiation oncology information. Methods: All answers posted in a soft-launch period between December 2012 and September 2013, and following launch in September 2013 were evaluated. Answers were evaluated for quality based on whether they cited published data, guidelines, current and future clinical trials, or personal experience. Results: Between December 2012 and January 2014, 100 answers were posted to 74 questions. The highest number of answers were related to breast cancer (18 answers), followed by head and neck (14), genitourinary (14), gynecologic (12), gastrointestinal (10), and thoracic malignancies (8). Academic radiation oncologists posted 89 answers, while community radiation oncologists and residents posted 4 and 6 answers, respectively. Twenty answers were related to advanced technology (IMRT, proton therapy, intraoperative radiotherapy, stereotactic treatments, or advanced imaging). Fifty-two answers cited published data. Among these, 80 publications were cited. Sixty-nine answers referred to personal experience and 31 cited both data and personal experience. Additionally, 14 answers referred to current or future clinical trials. Conclusions: In the initial launch of a question and answer social media website for radiation oncologists, the majority of content was found to refer to personal practices and the published literature. Social media may become an increasingly useful tool to share knowledge and practice patterns. Further research will be necessarily to determine if this form of knowledge sharing can be used to reduce practice variations and improve the quality of patient care.
Public Health England insists e-cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking
Authors: Zosia Kmietowicz
Journal: BMJ (2018)

England’s public health agency has reiterated its claim that vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking, in a new campaign to encourage smokers to quit in January.1

A film, part of the Health Harms campaign, features Lion Shahab, a leading smoking cessation academic from University College London, and the GP Rosemary Leonard carrying out an experiment in which bell jars filled with cotton wool balls capture the smoke from a month’s worth of cigarettes and from electronic cigarettes.

The results show that smoking produces brown and tar filled cotton wool balls while those from the e-cigarette bell jar remain unstained.

Public Health England says that around 2.5 million adults in England are using e-cigarettes and that the devices have helped thousands of people to quit smoking. But it says that many smokers (44%) either …
Evaluation of depression and sleep quality in patients with solid tumor during chemotherapy.
Authors: Ozlem Sonmez, Serdar Olt, Mehmet Akif Ozturk, Meltem Baykara, Erkan -. Arpaci, Hasan Ergenc, Cengiz Karacaer, Jalan Ergonenc, Orhan Onder Eren, Ali Tamer
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e17685 Background: Cancer is a stressful situation itself and brings along a number of psychiatric disorders, which are frequently encountered as depression and sleep disorders. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the depression and sleep quality in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy Methods: This study was conducted as a result of the questionnaire evaluation of 123 cancer patients, who were followed up by the oncology polyclinic of Sakarya University Medical Faculty Training and Research Hospital and were receiving chemotherapy. Beck depression Inventory (BDI) and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) were used to obtain data of the study. Results: Of patients who were involved in the study, 48% were male and 52% were female. Their age average was determined as 56.6±12.4. According to the Beck depression inventory, major depression was determined in 12.2% of patients, moderate depression in 27.6%, mild depression in 31.7% and no depression in 28.5%. According to the PSQI analysis, it was determined that 63.6% had a poor sleep quality. Examining the cancer types of patients included in the study; the most frequent types were respectively as follows; breast, invasive, ductal, carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, colon adenocarcinoma, rectum adenocarcinoma, and gastric adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: This study showed that patients with solid tumor receiving chemotherapy in our unit had higher rates of both depression and sleep quality disorder compared to literature. The application of these tests that are easily applied under polyclinic conditions and have a high reliability may enable the diagnosis of depressive diseases and sleep disorders in patients without symptoms and referral of patients to treatment. Thus, it may increase the adherence to and success of treatment, which might reflect on the increase of the survival of patients.
Assessing the prevalence of compromised bone health among overweight and obese African-American breast cancer survivors.
Authors: Patricia M. Sheean, Linda Schiffer, Claudia Arroyo, Karen Troy, Melinda Stolley
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

9596 Background: Osteoporosis is considered a late effect of breast cancer treatment. Previous studies included predominantly European-American women and analyzed African-American (AA) survivors in aggregate, despite their known differences in bone mineral density. Our purpose was to examine the prevalence of osteoporosis in a sample of exclusively AA women. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 111 overweight or obese AA women, aged 31-80 years, previously diagnosed and treated for stage I-IIIa breast cancer. Women completed questionnaires and underwent dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and phlebotomy prior to their enrollment in a weight loss intervention. Participants were categorized as having normal bone density, low bone mass or osteoporosis using the WHO definition for femoral neck T-scores. Results: Despite the frequent use of adjuvant hormone therapies (45%), a decreased ability to absorb ultraviolet light (54% reported dark/very dark skin), suboptimal intake (diet + supplements) of calcium and vitamin D [949 (± 569) mgs and 325 (± 231 IUs), respectively], the infrequent use of bisphosphonates (7%), and a high occurrence of vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency (49% had serum 25(OH)D levels <20 ng/ml), the prevalence of osteoporosis and low bone mass was <1% (n=1) and 16% (n=17), respectively. The 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture was 2.4%. Age (p=0.004) was the only significant predictor of compromised bone health. Conclusions: These findings challenge the clinical assumption that osteoporosis is highly prevalent among all breast cancer survivors, providing foundational evidence to support differences by race/ethnicity and reiterating the necessity of regular dialogue concerning nonpharmacologic preventative options (e.g., diet and physical activity).
Serum leptin and adiponectin levels and relationship with prognosis in lung cancer.
Authors: Mehmet Metin Seker, Enver Sancakdar, Aydin Nadir, Gulsah Altun, Aykut Bahceci, Turgut Kacan, Nalan Babacan, Melih Kaptanoglu
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e19114 Background: Most of investigations have showed that the serum levels of these hormones may decrease in cancer patients. The two most widely accepted theory explaining this mechanism are decreasing adipose tissue and cancer related inflammation. In this trial we aimed to analyze the serum levels of these hormones before and after chemotherapy and their relationship with survival. Methods: Thirty locally advanced or metastatic non small cell lung cancer patients and 20 healthy controls were included in this study. Baseline serum samples were obtained from all participants and post-chemotherapy serum samples were obtained from patients and baseline and postchemotherapy serum leptin and adiponectin levels had detected. Results: The baseline serum leptin levels were 34.20 ng/ml and 8.90 ng/ml and the baseline serum adiponectin levels were 29.51 µg/ml and 12.81 µg/ml in healthy participants and patients, respectively (p<0.001 and p=0.002). The difference between baseline and postchemotherapy serum leptin (8.90 ng/ml vs 14.25 ng/ml; p=0.005) and adiponectin (12.81 µg/ml vs 19.01 µg/ml; p=0.001) levels were statistically significant, also. The median follow up period was 28 (14-86) months. The median progression free survival (PFS) was 20 months and 2 year PFS was 52.9% in patients whose serum leptin levels had not increased after chemotherapy or not (p=0.017). The PFS was 24 months and 20 months in patients whose serum adiponectin levels had increased after chemotherapy or not (p=0.057). The median overall survival (OS) 28 months in patients whose leptin levels had not increased after chemotherapy and 3 year OS was 80.0% in patients whose leptin levels had increased after chemotherapy (p<0.001). The OS was 44 months and 32 months in patients whose adiponectin levels had increased after chemotherapy or not (p>0.05). Conclusions: This study had showed that serum levels of leptin and adiponectin are lower in cancer patients. The increase of leptin and adiponectin with chemotherapy and better survival in patients whose leptin and adiponectin had increased with chemotherapy indicates that tumor related inflammation is more determinative for serum leptin and adiponectin levels.
Obesity and thyroid cancer.
Authors: Isadora Botwinick, Aida Taye, Ziqiang Yuan, Amanda Laird, Steven K. Libutti
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2014)

e17029 Background: Obesity is a risk factor for a number of solid organ tumors, including breast and ovarian cancer. Potential mechanisms for the effect of obesity include elevated blood levels of estrogen in obese patients, which stimulate estrogen receptors on hormone sensitive tumors. Thyroid cancers, which, like breast and ovarian cancer show a female predominance, may also be estrogen sensitive. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that obese women would have more aggressive thyroid tumors, which would correlate with estrogen receptor (ER) status. Methods: We enrolled 164 patients who underwent partial or total thyroidectomy between 2010-2012. Data collected included gender, body mass index, and pathology, including tumor type, TNM stage and MACIS staging criteria. Banked tumor samples from severely obese patients, as well as non-obese age and MACIS-matched controls underwent immunohistochemistry (IHC) to evaluate for ER status. After normality testing, parametric data was compared using unpaired t-tests and nonparametric data using Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Mean age at surgery was 49 years (range 13-84 years), mean BMI 30 (range 17-51) and mean MACIS score for all patients with malignant disease (n=79) was 4.98 (range 3.10-10.27). 86% of patients were female and the most common tumor type was papillary. In the largest subgroup of patients, females with papillary cancer (n= 59), severely obese patients (n= 10), defined as BMI > 35, had significantly larger tumors than thinner patients, defined as BMI < 35. Median tumor size in the severely obese patients was 2.95cm, and 1.5cm in the thinner patients (p < 0.05). Mean age was not significantly different in the severely obese and thinner patient groups, suggesting that diagnosis was not delayed in the severely obese cohort. IHC revealed that all tumor samples were ER positive. Conclusions: This data supports the view that obesity is a risk factor for tumor growth in thyroid cancer. Although in our small patient sample we did not see a significant difference in ER status between obese and non-obese patients, ER positivity appears to be widespread in papillary tumors and may contribute to oncogenesis. Further investigation will be required to delineate the biochemical pathways responsible for this phenomenon.