Evaluating Pneumonitis Incidence in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Treated with Immunotherapy and/or Chemotherapy Using Real-world and Clinical Trial Data.

Unlabelled: Pneumonitis is a potentially life-threatening complication of anticancer therapy, and future treatment decisions may be informed by characterizing patients receiving therapies in the real-world setting. In this study, the incidence of treatment-associated pneumonitis (TAP) was compared among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) or chemotherapies in either of two settings: randomized clinical trials (RCT) or real world data (RWD)-based clinical practice. Pneumonitis cases were identified using International Classification of Diseases codes (for RWD), or the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities preferred terms (for RCTs).

Rapid real-world data analysis of patients with cancer, with and without COVID-19, across distinct health systems.

Background: The understanding of the impact of COVID-19 in patients with cancer is evolving, with need for rapid analysis.

Aims: This study aims to compare the clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with cancer (with and without COVID-19) and characterize the clinical outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and cancer.

Methods And Results: Real-world data (RWD) from two health systems were used to identify 146 702 adults diagnosed with cancer between 2015 and 2020; 1267 COVID-19 cases were identified between February 1 and July 30, 2020.

HCV adaptation to HIV coinfection.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is rising as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients. Both viruses interact in co-infected hosts, which may affect their intra-host evolution, potentially leading to differing genetic composition of viral populations in co-infected (CIP) and mono-infected (MIP) patients. Here, we investigate genetic differences between intra-host variants of the HCV hypervariable region 1 (HVR1) sampled from CIP and MIP.

Identification of recent cases of hepatitis C virus infection using physical-chemical properties of hypervariable region 1 and a radial basis function neural network classifier.

Background: Identification of acute or recent hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections is important for detecting outbreaks and devising timely public health interventions for interruption of transmission. Epidemiological investigations and chemistry-based laboratory tests are 2 main approaches that are available for identification of acute HCV infection. However, owing to complexity, both approaches are not efficient.

analysis of pathways activation landscape in oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral leukoplakia.

A subset of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common subtype of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), harbor dysplastic lesions (often visually identified as leukoplakia) prior to cancer diagnosis. Although evidence suggest that leukoplakia represents an initial step in the progression to cancer, signaling networks driving this progression are poorly understood. Here, we applied Pathway Activation Network Decomposition Analysis (iPANDA), a new bioinformatics software suite for qualitative analysis of intracellular signaling pathway activation using transcriptomic data, to assess a network of molecular signaling in OSCC and pre-neoplastic oral lesions.

Pro-fibrotic pathway activation in trabecular meshwork and lamina cribrosa is the main driving force of glaucoma.

While primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is a leading cause of blindness worldwide, it still does not have a clear mechanism that can explain all clinical cases of the disease. Elevated IOP is associated with increased accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the trabecular meshwork (TM) that prevents normal outflow of aqueous humor (AH) and has damaging effects on the fine mesh-like lamina cribrosa (LC) through which the optic nerve fibers pass. Applying a pathway analysis algorithm, we discovered that an elevated level of TGFβ observed in glaucoma-affected tissues could lead to pro-fibrotic pathway activation in TM and in LC.