Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score is a prognostic marker in III-IV NSCLC patients receiving first-line chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the prognostic impact of the controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients receiving first-line chemotherapy. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 278 consecutive patients undergoing chemotherapy for stage III-IV NSCLC between May 2012 and July 2020. CONUT score was calculated by incorporating serum albumin, total cholesterol, and total lymphocyte count. The patients were divided into two groups: CONUT ≥ 3 and CONUT < 3, according to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The associations of CONUT with clinicopathological factors and survival were evaluated. RESULTS: A high CONUT score was significantly associated with older age(P = 0.003), worse ECOG-PS(P = 0.018), advanced clinical stage(P = 0.006), higher systematic inflammation index (SII) (P < 0.001)and lower prognostic nutritional index (PNI) (P < 0.001).The high CONUT group had a significantly shorter progression-free survival(PFS) and overall survival(OS) than the low CONUT group. In the univariate analysis, higher SII, higher CONUT, advanced clinical stage and lower PNI were associated with worse PFS (Pall < 0.05). Worse ECOG-PS, higher SII, higher CONUT, advanced clinical stage and lower PNI were associated with worse OS (Pall < 0.05). In multivariate analysis, CONUT(HR, 2.487; 95%CI 1.818 ~ 3.403; P < 0.001) was independently associated with PFS, while PNI(HR, 0.676; 95%CI 0.494 ~ 0.927; P = 0.015) and CONUT(HR, 2.186; 95%CI 1.591 ~ 3.002; P < 0.001)were independently associated with OS. In ROC analysis, CONUT had a higher area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the prediction of 24-month PFS and OS than the SII or PNI. When the time-dependent AUC curve was used to predict PFS and OS, CONUT tended to maintain its predictive accuracy for long-term prognosis at a significantly higher level for an extended period after chemotherapy when compared with the other markers tested. The CONUT score showed better accuracy of predicting OS (C-index: 0.711) and PFS(C-index: 0.753). CONCLUSION: CONUT score is an independent prognostic indicator of poor outcomes for patients with stage III-IV NSCLC and is superior to the SII and PNI in terms of prognostic ability.

[Novel ionic liquid as solvent for preconcentration of trace lead in dialysis fluids and its determination by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry].

A novel room temperature ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-trimethylsilylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate was designed and synthesized, and was applied to the preconcentration of ultra trace lead in a relatively large volume of dialysis fluids (such as 1 000 mL or bigger). In the present work, dithizone was employed as chelator to form a neutral lead- dithizone complex, and the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-trimethylsilylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate was used to displace CCl4 as solvent for liquid/liquid extraction of lead complex. The ionic liquid was collected and the lead (II) was back-extracted into aqueous solution by adding nitric acid solution, and the above solution was directly applied to determine lead in the dialysis fluids by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Experiments indicated that the proposed extraction system is superior over other systems in which organic solvent such as CCl4 or classical room temperature ionic liquid1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate was selected as extraction medium, and its extraction efficiency of once extraction and enrichment factor of lead was more than 99% and 200 times, respectively. The preconcentration combined with graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry has been applied to the determination of trace lead in dialysis fluid samples with satisfactory results.