Prevalence and prognosis of PIK3CA mutations in Bulgarian patients with metastatic breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy in first-line setting.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: In approximately 40% of patients with HER2-negative/HR-positive breast cancer tumors, the PIK3CA gene is mutated. Despite this, clinical outcomes vary between studies in this cohort. We aimed to ascertain the prevalence of PIK3CA mutations in patients with metastatic HR+/HER2- breast in Bulgaria, as well the evaluation and comparison of progression free survival (PFS) between wild-type (WT) and mutation-positive groups in the real-world setting. METHODS: Three oncology centers in Bulgaria collected 250 tissue samples between 2016 and 2022 for this multicentric retrospective study. PIK3CA mutations were identified using Real-Time qPCR. The median follow-up period was 35 months. RESULTS: The mean age of the mutant cohort was 57.6 ± 11.6 years, compared to 56.5 ± 12.2 years for the WT cohort (p = .52). The percentage of patients with visceral metastasis was 58.8% (n = 147). Approximately 84.3% (n = 210) of the patients had reached postmenopause. 29.2% (n = 73) of the patients had PIK3CA mutations. The predominant mutation was present in exon 20, H1047R (46.5%). We found a significant correlation only between the presence of a mutation and the metastatic diseases at diagnosis (p = .002). As first-line therapy, 67.1% of patients received endocrine therapy (ET) plus cyclin dependent kinase (CDK4/6) inhibitor, while the remainder received ET alone. The median PFS of patients in the group with the mutation was 32 months (95%, CI: 22-40) compared to 24 months in the WT cohort ((95%, CI: 21-36) (p = .45)); HR = 0.86 (95%, CI: 0.5-1.3) (p = .46). We corroborated our conclusion using propensity matching score analysis, (36 months [95% CI: 20-40] vs. 26 months [95% CI: 21-38], [p = .69]). CONCLUSIONS: We found that the prevalence of PIK3CA mutations in our patients was comparable to what has been reported in other nations. Our results suggest that PIK3CA mutational status has no bearing to ET efficacy in first-line setting.

[The Bain circuit. Theoretical aspects and clinical use]. / Circuitul Bain. Aspecte teoretice si utilizarea clinica.

After a concise theoretical presentation of the present stage of semiclosed circuits, the authors assess their personal experience in the use of the Bain system. Under controlled respiration, adminstration of a fresh flow of gases of 70 ml per Kg of body weight-1 per minute-1 (between 4,5 and 6 1 per minute-1) prevents reinchalation. By its characteristics, which include: on optimal control of PaCO2 by a simple variation of the flow of fresh gases, universality, economy, the Bain system has demonstrated its utility in the anesthetics practice.

Estudio de la estructura antigénica y de las marcas genéticas de las cepas de influenza tipo A2 variante Hong Kong, aisladas en La Habana en el año 1969

En 1969 en La Habana se aislaron 17 cepas del virus de influenza serotipo A2 Variante Hong Kong. Se estudió la estructura antígenica y las marcas géneticas de las cepas genéticas de las cepas aisladas. La estructura antigénica de las cepas aisladas demuestra que ellos representan una nueva variante del virus de gripe A2. Tiene relacióin antigénica con rerotipo A2(AU)