The optimal cut-off values for tumor size, number of lesions, and CEA levels in patients with surgically treated colorectal cancer liver metastases: An international, multi-institutional study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Despite the long-standing consensus on the importance of tumor size, tumor number and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels as predictors of long-term outcomes among patients with colorectal liver metastases (CRLM), optimal prognostic cut-offs for these variables have not been established. METHODS: Patients who underwent curative-intent resection of CRLM and had available data on at least one of the three variables of interest above were selected from a multi-institutional dataset of patients with known KRAS mutational status. The resulting cohort was randomly split into training and testing datasets and recursive partitioning analysis was employed to determine optimal cut-offs. The concordance probability estimates (CPEs) for these optimal cut offs were calculated and compared to CPEs for the most widely used cut-offs in the surgical literature. RESULTS: A total of 1643 patients who met eligibility criteria were identified. Following recursive partitioning analysis in the training dataset, the following cut-offs were identified: 2.95 cm for tumor size, 1.5 for tumor number and 6.15 ng/ml for CEA levels. In the entire dataset, the calculated CPEs for the new tumor size (0.52), tumor number (0.56) and CEA (0.53) cut offs exceeded CPEs for other commonly employed cut-offs. CONCLUSION: The current study was able to identify optimal cut-offs for the three most commonly employed prognostic factors in CRLM. While the per variable gains in discriminatory power are modest, these novel cut-offs may help produce appreciable increases in prognostic performance when combined in the context of future risk scores.

Risk factors for ureteral obstruction and the diagnostic value of the "cysto-under-tension" technique at the time of uterosacral colpopexy.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: The objective is to determine the incidence of ureteral obstruction and delayed ureteral injury and to identify risk factors for ureteral obstruction following uterosacral colpopexy. The secondary objective is to evaluate the diagnostic value of the "cysto-under-tension" technique, when a cystoscopy is performed prior to vaginal cuff closure with the uterosacral sutures on tension. METHODS: This was a retrospective review of patients undergoing uterosacral ligament colpopexy between 2007 and 2012 with a nested case-control analysis. Patients with documented ureteral obstruction on cystoscopy or a delayed ureteral injury were identified. Cases were defined as patients with a ureteral obstruction on cystoscopy and controls as those who did not; a multivariable regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 551 patients underwent uterosacral ligament colpopexy. Twenty-four (4.3% [95% CI = 2.94-6.40]) patients had a ureteral obstruction on cystoscopy, and two (0.4% [95% CI = 0.09-1.31]) patients experienced a delayed ureteral injury. The "cysto-under-tension" technique was used in 40 (7.3%) cases, with a sensitivity of 50.0% (CI = 1.26-98.74) and specificity of 97.4% (CI = 86.2-99.9) to detect ureteral obstruction. On logistic regression for the case-control analysis, increased age remained associated with increased odds of ureteral obstruction (adjOR 1.06, 95% CI = 1.02-1.11) and a higher BMI had lower odds (adjOR 0.89, 95% CI = 0.79-0.98). CONCLUSIONS: In this large cohort study, older age was associated with higher odds of obstruction at the time of colpopexy while a higher BMI might have been protective. The "cysto-under-tension" technique overall may not be that useful in detecting ureteral obstructions but has high negative predictive value.

A Novel Predictive Model Utilizing Retinal Microstructural Features for Estimating Survival Outcome in Patients with Glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumor with poor prognosis despite surgery and chemoradiation. The visual sequelae of glioblastoma have not been well characterized. This study assessed visual outcomes in glioblastoma patients through neuro-ophthalmic exams, imaging of the retinal microstructures/microvasculature, and perimetry. A total of 19 patients (9 male, 10 female, average age at diagnosis 69 years) were enrolled. Best-corrected visual acuity ranged from 20/20-20/50. Occipital tumors showed worse visual fields than frontal tumors (mean deviation - 14.9 and - 0.23, respectively, p < 0.0001). Those with overall survival (OS) < 15 months demonstrated thinner retinal nerve fiber layer and ganglion cell complex (p < 0.0001) and enlarged foveal avascular zone starting from 4 months post-diagnosis (p = 0.006). There was no significant difference between eyes ipsilateral and contralateral to radiation fields (average doses were 1370 cGy and 1180 cGy, respectively, p = 0.42). A machine learning algorithm using retinal microstructure and visual fields predicted patients with long (≥ 15 months) progression free and overall survival with 78% accuracy. Glioblastoma patients frequently present with visual field defects despite normal visual acuity. Patients with poor survival duration demonstrated significant retinal thinning and decreased microvascular density. A machine learning algorithm predicted survival; further validation is warranted.

Endothelial PERK-ATF4-JAG1 axis activated by T-ALL remodels bone marrow vascular niche.

The endoplasmic reticulum unfolded protein response (UPR) is a conserved adaptive signaling in ER homeostasis and has emerged as critical in highly proliferating cells and potential treatment target for acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). Methods: in this study, we assessed the transcriptomic and phenotypic alterations in UPR response of the bone marrow endothelial cells (ECs) in mice engrafted with T-ALL and in bone marrow specimens from patients who have T-ALL. We used PERK inhibitor and generated endothelial specific PERK knockout mice to study the impact of PERK on leukemia progression and hematopoiesis. We performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) to study the mechanistic regulation of JAG1 by ATF4. We characterized small extracellular vesicles (SEV) from leukemia-developing mice and studied the effect of SEVs on EC function. Results: we found that T-ALL development induced a robust activation of protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK)-dominant UPR in the bone marrow endothelial vascular niche. The activation of PERK-eIF2a-ATF4 axis remodels the vascular niche, upregulates angiogenic factors including VEGFα and ATF4-regulated JAG1, and suppresses the expression of SCF and CXCL12, which are important to HSC maintenance and regeneration. Further, targeting endothelial PERK significantly improved T-ALL outcome. EC-specific deletion of PERK abolished the aberrant JAG1 up-regulation, improved HSC maintenance, promoted leukemia apoptosis, and improved overall survival. Finally, we showed that small extracellular vesicles are critical mediators of endothelial PERK-eIF2a-ATF4 activation and JAG1 up-regulation in leukemia. Corroborating animal model studies, activation of PERK-ATF4-JAG1 is prominent in human T-ALL bone marrow and T-ALL xenografts. Conclusion: our studies thus revealed for the first time that the leukemia-initiated PERK-ATF4-JAG1 axis plays a critical role in the remodeling of the bone marrow vascular niche and that targeting vascular niche UPR is a potential therapeutic opportunity in T-ALL.

Mutant KRAS as a prognostic biomarker after hepatectomy for rectal cancer metastases: Does the primary disease site matter?

BACKGROUND: The prognostic implication of mutant KRAS (mKRAS) among patients with primary disease in the rectum remains unknown. METHODS: From 2000 to 2018, patients undergoing hepatectomy for colorectal liver metastases at 10 collaborating international institutions with documented KRAS status were surveyed. RESULTS: A total of 834 (65.8%) patients with primary colon cancer and 434 (34.2%) patients with primary rectal cancer were included. In patients with primary colon cancer, mKRAS served as a reliable prognostic biomarker of poor overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.58, 95% CI 1.28-1.95) in the multivariable analysis. Although a trend towards significance was noted, mKRAS was not found to be an independent predictor of OS in patients with primary rectal tumors (HR 1.34, 95% CI 0.98-1.80). For colon cancer, the specific codon impacted in mKRAS appears to reflect underlying disease biology and oncologic outcomes, with codon 13 being associated with particularly poor OS in patients with left-sided tumors (codon 12, HR 1.56, 95% CI 1.22-1.99; codon 13, HR 2.10 95% CI 1.43-3.08;). Stratifying the rectal patient population by codon mutation did not confer prognostic significance following hepatectomy. CONCLUSIONS: While the left-sided colonic disease is frequently grouped with rectal disease, our analysis suggests that there exist fundamental biologic differences that drive disparate outcomes. Although there was a trend toward significance of KRAS mutations for patients with primary rectal cancers, it failed to achieve statistical significance.