Evaluation of personalized methylprednisolone therapy in critically ill COVID-19 patients: an observational comparative study using real-life data.

OBJECTIVE: Methylprednisolone is commonly used to attenuate the cytokine storm and prevent mortality in COVID-19 pneumonia. However, the optimal methylprednisolone dose and duration are unclear. Additional data are required on the effectiveness of methylprednisolone in reducing mortality in COVID-19. This real-life retrospective study aimed to analyze the data of a COVID-19 dedicated ICU and compare the mortality rates of standard care, low-dose, and pulse-dose methylprednisolone in patients requiring mechanical ventilatory support. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Methylprednisolone's indication, dose, and duration were determined according to the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia based on the patient's demographic parameters, comorbidities, laboratory data, radiology, and arterial blood gas analysis results. 867 patients were grouped as: no methylprednisolone (standard care), low-dose (0.5-1 mg/kg/day) methylprednisolone or pulse-dose (250-1,000 mg/day) methylprednisolone. RESULTS: The overall mortality rate was 63.78%. Adjusting the dose of methylprednisolone according to the severity of the disease resulted in statistically similar mortality rates despite the increase in disease severity. Mortality was 62.71% in standard treatment, 65.76% in low-dose, and 62.10% in pulse-dose methylprednisolone groups (p = 0.633). Invasive mechanical ventilation at admission was associated with increased mortality (HR: 1.826 [95% CI: 1.542-2.161]; p < 0.001). Hematologic disorders and malignancies, arterial blood pH and HCO3, neutrophil count, and NLR at admission were also associated with mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Personalizing the dose and duration of methylprednisolone according to the patient's disease severity assessed with demographic, clinical, and laboratory results may benefit mortality in severe COVID-19 patients receiving ventilatory support in the ICU. Hematologic disorders and malignancies, arterial blood pH and HCO3, neutrophil count, and NLR at admission were associated with mortality in our patient cohort.

Ultrasound-guided wire localization biopsy in non-palpable breast lesions: predictive factors for malignancy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the results of ultrasound-guided excisional biopsy in patients with nonpalpable breast lesions and examine factors associated with malignancy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 380 patients who underwent ultrasound-guided excisional biopsy for suspected nonpalpable breast masses, between May 2012 and 2018, were retrospectively examined. Histopathological results of the patients were compared regarding age, ultrasound findings, ultrasonographic and mammographic Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) categories and factors predicting malignancy were determined. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 48.35 ± 11.23 (17-86) years. There was a history of breast cancer in the families of 22 (5.8%) patients, and 187 (49.2%) patients were in menopause. The complication rate was found to be 6.6%. Malignant lesions were detected in 76 (20%) patients and benign lesions were detected in 304 (79.99%) patients. Some benign lesions were high-risk lesions (16.8%). Most of the patients with malignant lesions had early-stage breast cancer (83.3%). In univariate analyzes, ultrasonographic BI-RADS, mammographic BI-RADS and age variables were found to be associated with malignancy (p = 0.0001). In the multiple logistic regression analysis, ultrasonographic and mammographic BI-RADS values were found to be risk factors for malignancy (p = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: BI-RADS scoring was used to determine risk factors in predicting malignancy in the evaluation of suspected nonpalpable lesions. The ultrasound-guided wire localization biopsy is a useful method in nonpalpable breast lesions with suspected malignancy that cannot be diagnosed by core/vacuum biopsy or in cases where incompatibility between pathology and radiology results exists.

Pertuzumab, trastuzumab and taxane-based treatment for visceral organ metastatic, trastuzumab-naïve breast cancer: real-life practice outcomes.

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to describe the real-life practice outcomes of pertuzumab-trastuzumab-taxane (PTT) combination in visceral organ metastatic, trastuzumab-naive breast cancer (BC) patients. METHODS: This study was conducted by Turkish Oncology Group and included 317 patients' data from 36 centers. RESULTS: Median age was 51 (22-82). Median PFS was 28.5 months, while median OS was 40.3 months. Patients with brain metastases (n: 13, 4.1%) had worse PFS (16.8 m vs. 28.5 m; p = 0.002) and OS (26.7 m vs. 40.3 m; p = 0.009). Patients older than 65 years of age (n: 42, 13.2%) had significantly lower OS results (19.8 m vs. 40.3 m; p = 0.01). Two hundred sixty-eight patients (86.7%) received docetaxel while 37 patients (11.7%) received paclitaxel. PFS and OS were similar between taxane groups. In eight patients (2.5%), 5-40% ejection fraction decrement from baseline was detected without any clinical sign of heart failure. CONCLUSIONS: Our RLP trial included only visceral metastatic, trastuzumab-naïve BC patients including cases with brain involvement who received PTT combination in the first-line treatment. Regardless of negative prognostic characteristics, our results are in parallel with pivotal trial. Further strategies for brain metastasis should be developed to improve outcomes despite encouraging results with PTT treatment. Taxane selection can be personalized and endocrine maintenance may further improve outcomes after taxanes were discontinued. To our knowledge, this is the largest scale real-life clinical practice study of pertuzumab-trastuzumab-taxane therapy to date.

The combinations of TNFalpha-308 and IL-6 -174 or IL-10 -1082 genes polymorphisms suggest an association with susceptibility to sporadic late-onset Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the regulatory regions of the cytokine genes for tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-10 have been suggested to influence the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with conflicting results. AIM: To investigate the TNFalpha-308, IL-6 -174 and IL-10 -1082 gene polymorphisms as susceptibility factors for AD. METHODS: We analyzed genotype and allele distributions of these polymorphisms in 101 sporadic AD patients and 138 healthy controls. RESULTS: Heterozygotes (AG) or combined genotype (AG+AA) for IL-10 -1082 were associated with approximately two-fold increase in the risk of AD. Carriers of A alleles of both TNFalpha-308 and IL-10 -1082 had 6.5 times higher risk for AD in comparison with non-carriers. Concomitant presence of both mutant TNFalpha-308 A and IL-6 -174 C alleles raised three-fold the AD risk, whereas there was no notable risk for AD afflicted by IL-6 -174 polymorphism alone. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that TNFalpha and IL-10 promoter polymorphism might be a risk factor for AD. The combined effects of TNFalpha-308, IL-6 -174 and IL-10 -1082 variant alleles may be more decisive to induce functional differences and modify the risk for AD.

Close friend and group influence on adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use.

The relative influence of adolescents closest friends and their friendship group on their cigarette smoking and alcohol use was investigated in a short-term, longitudinal study of 1,028 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades in 2 school systems. The amount of influence over the school year was modest in magnitude and came from the closest friend for initiation of cigarette and alcohol use. Only the friendship group use predicted transition into current cigarette use, whereas only the close friend use predicted transition into current alcohol use. Both group and close friends independently contributed to the prediction of adolescents' drinking to intoxication. No difference in the amount of influence, was found between stable and unstable close friendships or friendship groups; neither grade nor gender of the adolescents related to the amount of influence.