Inflammation-related proteins as biomarkers of treatment-related behavioral symptoms: A longitudinal study of breast cancer patients and age-matched controls.

Background: Behavioral symptoms in breast cancer (BC) survivors have been attributed to cancer treatment and resulting inflammation. However, studies linking behavioral symptoms to BC treatment have observed patients only after some treatment. Our prospective study with pre-treatment baseline investigates post-treatment changes in inflammation-related biomarkers and whether those changes correlate with changes in symptoms.

HER2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates for breast cancer: ancestry and dose adjustment for thrombocytopenia.

Background: Thrombocytopenia is a common adverse event on HER2-targeted therapies, fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). A reported association of Asian ancestry with this event merits investigation to rule out potential confounding.

Methods: Subjects in this retrospective cohort were female patients with HER2 positive breast cancer, of Asian or non-Hispanic White ancestry, who initiated T-DM1 or T-DXd from January 2017 through October 2021.

Predicting Hyperglycemia Among Patients Receiving Alpelisib Plus Fulvestrant for Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Background: Hyperglycemia is recognized as a common adverse event for patients receiving alpelisib but has been little studied outside of clinical trials. We report the frequency of alpelisib-associated hyperglycemia in a real-world setting and evaluate proposed risk factors.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with PIK3CA-mutated, hormone receptor-positive, metastatic breast cancer who initiated treatment with alpelisib plus fulvestrant between August 2019 and December 2021.

Germline mutations and age at onset of lung adenocarcinoma.

Background: To identify additional at-risk groups for lung cancer screening, which targets persons with a long history of smoking and thereby misses younger or nonsmoking cases, the authors evaluated germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in patients with lung adenocarcinoma for an association with an accelerated onset.

Methods: The authors assembled a retrospective cohort (1999-2018) of oncogenetic clinic patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Eligibility required a family history of cancer, data on smoking, and a germline biospecimen to screen via a multigene panel.

Tumor Epigenetic Signature and Survival in Resected Gastric Cancer Patients.

Background: Precision oncology can identify patient-specific molecular signatures to better inform the prognosis and management of surgical cancer patients. Specifically, microRNAs (miRs) hold promise as prognostic biomarkers because dysregulation of individual miRs is implicated in tumorigenesis, progression, and metastases of various malignancies, including gastric adenocarcinoma (GC).

Study Design: To identify miRs prognostic of survival after radical gastrectomy, we studied GC patients within The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) who had undergone R0 or R1 resection and had data on clinical characteristics, overall survival (OS), and tumor miR expression.

Are associations between psychosocial stressors and incident lung cancer attributable to smoking?

Purpose: To learn whether reported associations between major psychosocial stressors and lung cancer are independent of smoking history.

Methods: Subjects were at least 25 years old and without lung cancer at enrollment in the United States Census Bureau's National Longitudinal Mortality Survey in 1995-2008. Follow-up via Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results and National Death Index continued until lung cancer diagnosis, death, or December 2011.

A copula model for joint modeling of longitudinal and time-invariant mixed outcomes.

Motivated by a preclinical study in a mouse model of breast cancer, we suggest a joint modeling framework for outcomes of mixed type and measurement structures (longitudinal versus single time/time-invariant). We present an approach based on the time-varying copula models, which is used to jointly model longitudinal outcomes of mixed types via a time-varying copula, and extend the scope of these models to handle outcomes with mixed measurement structures. Our framework allows the parameters corresponding to the longitudinal outcome to be time varying and thereby enabling researchers to investigate how the response-predictor relationships change with time.

Prospective Study of Cancer Genetic Variants: Variation in Rate of Reclassification by Ancestry.

Background: In germline genetic testing, variants from understudied ancestries have been disproportionately classified as being of uncertain significance. We hypothesized that the rate of variant reclassification likewise differs by ancestry.

Methods: Nonbenign variants in actionable genes were collected from consenting subjects undergoing genetic testing at two Southern California sites from September 1996 through December 2016.

Screening endoscopy finds high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and intestinal metaplasia in Korean American with limited access to health care.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is the leading cause of cancer death among Korean Americans. Prevention and early detection is improved by screening.

Methods: Between September 2013 and March 2015, ethnic Koreans age 40 or older without history or symptoms of GC and without upper endoscopy (UE) during previous 3 years were enrolled.

Objective physical and mental markers of self-reported fatigue in women undergoing (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer.

Background: Objective, treatment-independent markers of cancer-related fatigue are needed to advance clinical trials. In the current study, the authors evaluated physical, neurocognitive, and serologic markers for correlation with self-reported fatigue before and after (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with early-stage breast cancer.

Methods: Women with AJCC TNM Stage I-III breast cancer consented to assessment before and after the completion of 4 cycles of dose-dense doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.

Toxicity profile of repeated doses of PEG-asparaginase incorporated into a pediatric-type regimen for adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Despite having been long regarded as too toxic for adult patients, pediatric-like regimens containing L-asparaginase have resulted in improved outcomes for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). To characterize the spectrum of toxicity of repeated doses of polyethylene glycolated-asparaginase (PEG-asp) in adults, we reviewed all doses (2000 IU/m(2) ) administered as part of a pediatric-inspired regimen in adult ALL at our center. Subjects aged 18-60 yr with ALL (n = 152, 69.

Socioeconomic and clinical factors are key to uncovering disparity in accrual onto therapeutic trials for breast cancer.

To monitor and address disparity in accrual, patient participation in cancer clinical trials is routinely summarized by race/ethnicity. To investigate whether confounding obscures racial/ethnic disparity in participation, all women with breast cancer treated by medical oncologists at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center from 2004 through 2009 were classified by birthplace and self-reported race/ethnicity, and followed for accrual onto therapeutic trials through 2010. Undetectable on univariate analysis, significantly reduced participation by subjects of African, Asian, Eastern European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern ancestries was revealed after accounting for age, socioeconomic factors, tumor and oncologist characteristics, and intrapractice clustering of patients.

Evaluation of expert criteria for preoperative magnetic resonance imaging of newly diagnosed breast cancer.

Despite 2 randomized trials reporting no reduction in operations or local recurrence at 1 year, preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used in diagnostic workup of breast cancer. We evaluated 5 utilization criteria recently proposed by experts. Of women (n = 340) newly diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer who underwent bilateral MRI, most (69.

Incidence of inflammatory breast cancer in women, 1992-2009, United States.

Background: The annual incidence of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in the United States reportedly increased during the last quarter of the twentieth century. We investigated whether that increase has continued into the twenty-first century.

Methods: We queried the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database for all cases of IBC in women age 20 and older between 1992 and 2009.

Severe menopausal symptoms are widespread among survivors of breast cancer treatment regardless of time since diagnosis.

Background: The intensity and persistence of treatment-related symptoms among breast cancer survivors is incompletely understood.

Objective: The objective of the study was to estimate prevalence of severe symptoms well after initial treatment for breast cancer, to test whether symptom intensity diminishes with time or varies by treatment received.

Design, Setting, Subjects: This was a cross-sectional survey of female survivors of stage I-III invasive breast cancer, seen for routine follow-up a year or more after diagnosis.

Donor killer immunoglobulin-like receptor genes and reactivation of cytomegalovirus after HLA-matched hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation: HLA-C allotype is an essential cofactor.

Natural killer (NK) cells whose killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) recognize human leukocyte antigen (HLA) ligand are "licensed" for activity. In contrast, non-licensed NK cells display KIRs for which ligand is absent from the self genotype and are usually hyporesponsive. Surprisingly, non-licensed cells are active in tumor control after hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) and dominate NK response to murine cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.

Severe hyperglycemia immediately after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation is predictive of acute graft-versus-host disease.

Stress hyperglycemia and acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), the major early complication of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), are both associated with excessive release of inflammatory cytokines. We investigated whether new-onset hyperglycemia immediately after HSCT predicts acute GVHD. We studied nondiabetic adult recipients of human leukocyte antigen-matched HSCT (peripheral blood stem cells) for acute leukemia.

Predicting acute and persistent neuropathy associated with oxaliplatin.

Objectives: We sought to predict oxaliplatin-associated peripheral neuropathy during modified FOLFOX6 (mFOLFOX6) therapy.

Methods: Equal numbers of male and female patients with previously untreated, primary or recurrent colorectal cancer were followed through a first course of mFOLFOX6 with 85 mg/m² oxaliplatin every 2 weeks. Accounting for correlation among a subject's cycle, logistic regression estimated per cycle risk of acute (under 14 d) and persistent (14 d or more) neuropathy.

Treatment-subgroup interaction: an example from a published, phase II clinical trial.

Phase II trial designs that ignore between-patient heterogeneity and do not allow for treatment-subgroup interactions may produce very large false positive and false negative error rates if efficacy varies by subgroup. Recent discussions of this problem were illustrated with scenarios and computer simulations. In this short communication, we reanalyzed a published phase II trial to highlight the need to consider between-patient heterogeneity and the possibility of treatment-subgroup interaction when designing and analyzing phase II studies.

Donor and recipient CMV serostatus and outcome of pediatric allogeneic HSCT for acute leukemia in the era of CMV-preemptive therapy.

In the era of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-preemptive therapy, it is unclear whether CMV serostatus of donor or recipient affects outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) among children with leukemia. To investigate, consecutive patients aged 0-18 who underwent primary HSCT for acute leukemia in 1997-2007 (HLA-matched sibling or unrelated donor, myeloablative conditioning, unmanipulated bone marrow or peripheral blood, preemptive therapy, no CMV prophylaxis) were followed retrospectively through January 2008. Treatment failure (relapse or death) was analyzed using survival-based proportional hazards regression.

Mild and moderate-to-severe COPD in nonsmokers: distinct demographic profiles.

Study Objective: To investigate the risk of COPD among nonsmokers.

Design: Case-control study, logistic regression analysis.

Setting: Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, from 1988 to 1994.