Comparing Clinician Estimates versus a Statistical Tool for Predicting Risk of Death within 45 Days of Admission for Cancer Patients.

Objectives:  While clinical practice guidelines recommend that oncologists discuss goals of care with patients who have advanced cancer, it is estimated that less than 20% of individuals admitted to the hospital with high-risk cancers have end-of-life discussions with their providers. While there has been interest in developing models for mortality prediction to trigger such discussions, few studies have compared how such models compare with clinical judgment to determine a patient's mortality risk.

Methods:  This study is a prospective analysis of 1,069 solid tumor medical oncology hospital admissions ( = 911 unique patients) from February 7 to June 7, 2022, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Analytical Validation and Performance Characteristics of Molecular Serum Biomarkers, miR-371a-3p and miR-372-3p, for Male Germ Cell Tumors, in a Clinical Laboratory Setting.

Detection of serum embryonic miRNAs miR-371a-3p and miR-372-3p has been proposed to aid in diagnosis, prognosis, and management of patients with testicular germ cell tumors (GCTs). This study describes the analytical validation and performance of a laboratory-developed test to detect these miRNA targets by stem loop real-time quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) in serum from patients with GCTs. The assay was standardized using an exogenous spike-in control of nonhuman miRNA from Caenorhabditis elegans (cel-miR-39-3p) to assess extraction efficiency, and an endogenous housekeeping miRNA, miR-30b-5p, to control for miRNA normalization.

Predictors of Humoral Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and CAR T-cell Therapy.

Unlabelled: Cellular therapies including allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (allo-HCT) and autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (auto-HCT) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy render patients severely immunocompromised for extended periods after therapy, and data on responses to COVID-19 vaccines are limited. We analyzed anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG Ab (spike Ab) titers and neutralizing Ab among 217 recipients of cellular treatments (allo-HCT, = 149; auto-HCT, = 61; CAR T-cell therapy, = 7). At 3 months after vaccination, 188 patients (87%) had positive spike Ab levels and 139 (77%) had positive neutralization activity compared with 100% for both in 54 concurrent healthy controls.

Disease- and Therapy-Specific Impact on Humoral Immune Responses to COVID-19 Vaccination in Hematologic Malignancies.

Unlabelled: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccine response data for patients with hematologic malignancy, who carry high risk for severe COVID-19 illness, are incomplete. In a study of 551 hematologic malignancy patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG titers and neutralizing activity were measured at 1 and 3 months from initial vaccination. Compared with healthy controls, patients with hematologic malignancy had attenuated antibody titers at 1 and 3 months.