The impact of lowering the study design significance threshold to 0.005 on sample size in randomized cancer clinical trials.

The proposal of improving reproducibility by lowering the significance threshold to 0.005 has been discussed, but the impact on conducting clinical trials has yet to be examined from a study design perspective. The impact on sample size and study duration was investigated using design setups from 125 phase II studies published between 2015 and 2022.

AKTIP loss is enriched in ERα-positive breast cancer for tumorigenesis and confers endocrine resistance.

Recurrent deletion of 16q12.2 is observed in luminal breast cancer, yet the causal genomic alterations in this region are largely unknown. In this study, we identify that loss of AKTIP, which is located on 16q12.

A multicenter retrospective cohort study on predicting the risk for amiodarone pulmonary toxicity.

Background: Amiodarone is one of the most commonly used anti-arrhythmic agents. Amiodarone pulmonary toxicity is a potentially fatal adverse effect associated with amiodarone use. Previous studies on the epidemiology and risk factors for amiodarone pulmonary toxicity showed diverse results.

Prospective Study of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma on Waitlist for Liver Transplant.

Background And Aims: There are no prospective data on stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) as a bridge to liver transplantation for HCC. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SBRT as bridging therapy, with comparison with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).

Approach And Results: Patients were prospectively enrolled for SBRT under a standardized protocol from July 2015 and compared with a retrospective cohort of patients who underwent TACE or HIFU from 2010.

Hepatitis B Virus Seropositivity Is a Poor Prognostic Factor of Pediatric Hepatocellular Carcinoma: a Population-Based Study in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rare hepatic malignancy in children. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a key predisposing factor in endemic regions but its impact on outcome has not been studied. We aim to evaluate the prognostic implication of HBV seropositivity and role of cancer surveillance in children with HCC from East Asian populations with national HBV vaccination.

Analysis of Survival Benefits of Living Versus Deceased Donor Liver Transplant in High Model for End-Stage Liver Disease and Hepatorenal Syndrome.

Background And Aims: Previous recommendations suggested living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) should not be considered for patients with Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) > 25 and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS).

Approach And Results: Patients who were listed with MELD > 25 from 2008 to 2017 were analyzed with intention-to-treat (ITT) basis retrospectively. Patients who had a potential live donor were analyzed as ITT-LDLT, whereas those who had none belonged to ITT-deceased donor liver transplantation (DDLT) group.

Radiomics analysis using stability selection supervised component analysis for right-censored survival data.

Radiomics is a newly emerging field that involves the extraction of massive quantitative features from biomedical images by using data-characterization algorithms. Distinctive imaging features identified from biomedical images can be used for prognosis and therapeutic response prediction, and they can provide a noninvasive approach for personalized therapy. So far, many of the published radiomics studies utilize existing out of the box algorithms to identify the prognostic markers from biomedical images that are not specific to radiomics data.

National action to combat AMR: a One-Health approach to assess policy priorities in action plans.

Little is known about the overall trend and prioritisations of past and current antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policies. Here we introduce a quantitative method to analyse AMR policies. The AMR-Policy Analysis Coding Toolkit (AMR-PACT) uses several categorical variables.

Myeloproliferative neoplasms treated with hydroxyurea, pegylated interferon alpha-2A or ruxolitinib: clinicohematologic responses, quality-of-life changes and safety in the real-world setting.

Real-world data of responses, quality-of-life (QOL) changes and adverse events in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) on conventional therapy (hydroxyurea ± anagrelide), pegylated interferon alpha-2A (PEG-IFNα-2A) or ruxolitinib are limited. We prospectively studied MPN patients receiving conventional therapy, PEG-IFNα-2A or ruxolitinib. Next-generation sequencing of 69 myeloid-related genes was performed.

The 12-month prevalence of psychotic experiences and their association with clinical outcomes in Hong Kong: an epidemiological and a 2-year follow up studies.

Background: The relationship between the subtypes of psychotic experiences (PEs) and common mental health symptoms remains unclear. The current study aims to establish the 12-month prevalence of PEs in a representative sample of community-dwelling Chinese population in Hong Kong and explore the relationship of types of PEs and common mental health symptoms.

Method: This is a population-based two-phase household survey of Chinese population in Hong Kong aged 16-75 (N = 5719) conducted between 2010 and 2013 and a 2-year follow-up study of PEs positive subjects (N = 152).

Ten-year trajectory and outcomes of negative symptoms of patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

This study explored the 10-year trajectories and outcomes of negative symptoms in patients with first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. Patients were from the historical control study comparing 10-year outcomes between standard care and early intervention services. A total of 298 patients were identified, 214 were successfully interviewed at 10-year follow-up for clinical and functional outcomes and 209 patients were included for final analyses.

Effect of machine learning re-sampling techniques for imbalanced datasets in F-FDG PET-based radiomics model on prognostication performance in cohorts of head and neck cancer patients.

Purpose: Biomedical data frequently contain imbalance characteristics which make achieving good predictive performance with data-driven machine learning approaches a challenging task. In this study, we investigated the impact of re-sampling techniques for imbalanced datasets in PET radiomics-based prognostication model in head and neck (HNC) cancer patients.

Methods: Radiomics analysis was performed in two cohorts of patients, including 166 patients newly diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in our centre and 182 HNC patients from open database.

Clofarabine, cytarabine, and mitoxantrone in refractory/relapsed acute myeloid leukemia: High response rates and effective bridge to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Clofarabine is active in refractory/relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In this phase 2 study, we treated 18- to 65-year-old AML patients refractory to first-line 3 + 7 daunorubicin/cytarabine induction or relapsing after 3 + 7 induction and high-dose cytarabine consolidation, with clofarabine (30 mg/m /d, Days 1-5), cytarabine (750 mg/m /d, Days 1-5), and mitoxantrone (12 mg/m /d, Days 3-5) (CLAM). Patients achieving remission received up to two consolidation cycles of 50% CLAM, with eligible cases bridged to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).

Machine Learning Interpretation of Extended Human Papillomavirus Genotyping by Onclarity in an Asian Cervical Cancer Screening Population.

This study aimed (i) to compare the performance of the BD Onclarity human papillomavirus (HPV) assay with the Cobas HPV test in identifying cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2/3 or above (CIN2/3+) in an Asian screening population and (ii) to explore improving the cervical cancer detection specificity of Onclarity by machine learning. We tested 605 stratified random archived samples of cervical liquid-based cytology samples with both assays. All samples had biopsy diagnosis or repeated negative cytology follow-up.

A simplified prediction model for early intrahepatic recurrence after hepatectomy for patients with unilobar hepatocellular carcinoma without macroscopic vascular invasion: An implication for adjuvant therapy and postoperative surveillance.

Background: An accurate prediction model of early recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatectomy is important to ascertain the postoperative adjuvant treatment and surveillance.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study including 1125 patients with HCC underwent curative hepatic resection. They were randomly divided into training (n = 562) and validation (n = 563) sets.

Radiomics Model to Predict Early Progression of Nonmetastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma after Intensity Modulation Radiation Therapy: A Multicenter Study.

Purpose: To examine the prognostic value of a machine learning model trained with pretreatment MRI radiomic features in the assessment of patients with nonmetastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who are at risk for 3-year disease progression after intensity-modulated radiation therapy and to explain the radiomics features in the model.

Materials And Methods: A total of 277 patients with nonmetastatic NPC admitted between March 2008 and December 2014 at two imaging centers were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were allocated to a discovery or validation cohort based on where they underwent MRI (discovery cohort, = 217; validation cohort, = 60).

Ten-year employment patterns of patients with first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: comparison of early intervention and standard care services.

Background: Little is known about long-term employment outcomes for patients with first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum (FES) disorders who received early intervention services.

Aims: We compared the 10-year employment trajectory of patients with FES who received early intervention services with those who received standard care. Factors differentiating the employment trajectories were explored.

Available evidence of antibiotic resistance from extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in paediatric patients in 20 countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To make a systematic review of risk factors, outcomes and prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-associated infection in children and young adults in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific.

Methods: Up to June 2018 we searched online databases for published studies of infection with extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in individuals aged 0-21 years. We included case-control, cohort, cross-sectional and observational studies reporting patients positive and negative for these organisms.

Next-generation sequencing with a 54-gene panel identified unique mutational profile and prognostic markers in Chinese patients with myelofibrosis.

Current prognostication in myelofibrosis (MF) is based on clinicopathological features and mutations in a limited number of driver genes. The impact of other genetic mutations remains unclear. We evaluated for mutations in a myeloid panel of 54 genes using next-generation sequencing.

Toxicity Related to Radiotherapy Dose and Targeting Strategy: A Pooled Analysis of Cooperative Group Trials of Combined Modality Therapy for Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.

Objective: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was the standard treatment for locally advanced NSCLC (LA-NSCLC). This study was performed to examine thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) parameters and their impact on adverse events (AEs).

Methods: We collected individual patient data from 3600 patients with LA-NSCLC who participated in 16 cooperative group trials of concurrent CRT.

Exploring Radiotherapy Targeting Strategy and Dose: A Pooled Analysis of Cooperative Group Trials of Combined Modality Therapy for Stage III NSCLC.

Introduction: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is standard therapy for locally advanced NSCLC (LA-NSCLC) patients. This study was performed to examine thoracic radiotherapy (TRT) parameters and their impact on patient survival.

Methods: We collected individual patient data from 3600 LA-NSCLC patients participating in 16 cooperative group trials of concurrent CRT.

Impact of patient education on influenza vaccine uptake among community-dwelling elderly: a randomized controlled trial.

This randomized controlled trial aimed to test the effectiveness of brief face-to-face patient education in increasing influenza vaccination rate among elderly in the community. Recruitment and intervention were conducted at two general outpatient clinics in Hong Kong. 529 eligible patients were randomly assigned to intervention or control group with 1:1 allocation ratio.

Pooled Analysis of Individual Patient Data on Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Stage III Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer in Elderly Patients Compared With Younger Patients Who Participated in US National Cancer Institute Cooperative Group Studies.

Purpose Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is standard treatment for patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer. Elderly patients may experience increased rates of adverse events (AEs) or less benefit from concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Patients and Methods Individual patient data were collected from 16 phase II or III trials conducted by US National Cancer Institute-supported cooperative groups of concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone or with consolidation or induction chemotherapy for stage III non-small-cell lung cancer from 1990 to 2012.

Reporting and Guidelines in Propensity Score Analysis: A Systematic Review of Cancer and Cancer Surgical Studies.

Background: : Propensity score (PS) analysis is increasingly being used in observational studies, especially in some cancer studies where random assignment is not feasible. This systematic review evaluates the use and reporting quality of PS analysis in oncology studies.

Methods: : We searched PubMed to identify the use of PS methods in cancer studies (CS) and cancer surgical studies (CSS) in major medical, cancer, and surgical journals over time and critically evaluated 33 CS published in top medical and cancer journals in 2014 and 2015 and 306 CSS published up to November 26, 2015, without earlier date limits.