The lung immuno-oncology prognostic score (LIPS-3): a prognostic classification of patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab for PD-L1 ≥ 50% advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: To stratify the prognosis of patients with programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) ≥ 50% advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) treated with first-line immunotherapy. METHODS: Baseline clinical prognostic factors, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), PD-L1 tumour cell expression level, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and their combination were investigated by a retrospective analysis of 784 patients divided between statistically powered training (n = 201) and validation (n = 583) cohorts. Cut-offs were explored by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and a risk model built with validated independent factors by multivariate analysis. RESULTS: NLR < 4 was a significant prognostic factor in both cohorts (P < 0.001). It represented 53% of patients in the validation cohort, with 1-year overall survival (OS) of 76.6% versus 44.8% with NLR > 4, in the validation series. The addition of PD-L1 ≥ 80% (21% of patients) or LDH < 252 U/l (25%) to NLR < 4 did not result in better 1-year OS (of 72.6% and 74.1%, respectively, in the validation cohort). Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) of 2 [P < 0.001, hazard ratio (HR) 2.04], pretreatment steroids (P < 0.001, HR 1.67) and NLR < 4 (P < 0.001, HR 2.29) resulted in independent prognostic factors. A risk model with these three factors, namely, the lung immuno-oncology prognostic score (LIPS)-3, accurately stratified three OS risk-validated categories of patients: favourable (0 risk factors, 40%, 1-year OS of 78.2% in the whole series), intermediate (1 or 2 risk factors, 54%, 1-year OS 53.8%) and poor (>2 risk factors, 5%, 1-year OS 10.7%) prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: We advocate the use of LIPS-3 as an easy-to-assess and inexpensive adjuvant prognostic tool for patients with PD-L1 ≥ 50% aNSCLC.

[Evaluation of creatinine clearance in pediatric patients, excluding determination of creatininuria]. / Valutazione della clearance della creatinina in pazienti pediatrici escludendo il dosaggio della creatininuria.

Here is presented a practical method for predicting creatinine clearance for pediatric patients from serum creatinine concentration and patients age without collection 24 h urine. Creatinine excretion rate (ER) can be predicted from the patients age, in years, by the formula: ER = (0.0463 x age) + 0.4049. Creatinine clearance can be predicted using the predicted excretion rate and serum creatinine concentration. There was a correlation (r = 0.66) between predicted and observed creatinine clearance in 101 subjects. This method allows renal function to be rapidly estimated.

[Modifications of the fluorescence method for detecting salmonella in feces]. / Modifiche al metodo a fluorescenza per la ricerca delle salmonelle nelle feci.

The Authors illustrate two modifications of the indirect method for identifying Salmonellae on faeces using fluorescent antibodies. They compare a Commercial polyvalent serum with serum containing only the fundamental antigens of groups B, C and D of Kauffmann-White with the aim of reducing the phenomenon of aspecificity. In order to reduce the time required for this test they substitute the enrichment of the specimen in broth by filtering, first the specimen of faeces and then, successively, centrifuging the filtrate. These two modifications have been demonstrated satisfactorily when the test is carried out in children with active gastroenteritis.

[Enzymatic determination of total serum cholesterol by 4-aminophenazone-phenol: manual and automatic method (author's transl)]. / Determinazione enzimatica diretta del colesterolo totale nel siero con 4-aminofenazone-fenolo: metodo manuale ed automatico

A direct method is proposed for total serum cholesterol determination by two specific enzymes and a coupled colorimetric reaction according to Trinder. The red colored compound is antipyridilquinonimine. The method is simple (serum plus reagent), rapid (30 min of incubation) and relatively inexpensive. It is perfectly correlated with Röschlau's method and easy to apply to discrete automatic methods.