Early Access to Electronic Health Records May Influence the Patient Experience.

In a recent Hot Topics column, Mehmet Sitki Copur, MD, FACP, et al discussed the pros and cons of patients receiving test results early through electronic medical records.

Mode of Detection of Second Events in Routine Surveillance of Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients.

INTRODUCTION: NCCN and ASCO guidelines recommend breast cancer (BC) follow-up to include clinical breast examination (CBE) every 6 months and annual mammography (AM) for 5 years. Given limited data to support CBE, we evaluated the modes of detection (MOD) of BC-events in a contemporary practice. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of registry patients with early stage BC (DCIS, Stage I or II) diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 with at least 5 years of follow-up. Second events were defined as malignant (contralateral primary, ipsilateral breast tumor recurrence (IBTR), chest wall recurrence, regional node recurrence or distant relapse) or benign. MOD was categorized as patient complaint, clinical examination or breast imaging. RESULTS: Sixty-three of 351 BC patients experienced second events. 15 had BC malignant events, including 4 distant disease, 5 contralateral primary, and 3 IBTR. 7/8 of IBTR and contralateral primary BC were AM detected. Patient complaints identified 4/4 distant relapses. Clinical exam identified 2/2 chest wall recurrences in post-mastectomy patients. CONCLUSIONS: Only 2.8% (10/351) of early stage BC patients experienced recurrence during 5 years of follow-up. AM was the predominate MOD of both IBTR and new contralateral primary following breast conserving therapy. Patient complaints prompted evaluation for distant disease. Provider CBE was MOD in only 2/351, 0.6% 95% CI (2.1%-0.1%) of patients as chest wall recurrences postmastectomy. Given modern enhancements to imaging and lower recurrence rates, this data encourages the reassessment of guidelines for every 6-month CBE and provides basis to study telehealth in survivorship care.

Complete Pathologic Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy and Oxaliplatin-Induced Fever Associated With IL-6 Release in a Patient With Locally Advanced Colon Cancer

Neoadjuvant systemic therapy is a preferred treatment approach for a number of tumor types due to many potential advantages over upfront surgery, including tumor downstaging, early treatment of micrometastatic disease, and providing an in vivo test of tumor biology. For colon cancer, current standard of care is upfront surgery followed by adjuvant systemic therapy in high-risk patients. Concerns about inaccurate radiological staging and tumor progression during preoperative treatment, as well the lack of randomized data demonstrating benefit, are among the reasons for the limited use of neoadjuvant therapy in this disease. Locally advanced colon cancer, defined as primary colon cancer with direct invasion into the adjacent structures or extensive regional lymph node involvement, is not always amenable to pathological complete resection, and when attempted it comes with high incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality because of the required multivisceral resection. Clinical trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer to date have been promising with downstaging of disease and higher rates of R0 resection. Here, we report a case of a patient with locally advanced, unresectable, mismatch repair deficient sigmoid colon cancer who was treated with neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy followed by surgical resection leading to a complete pathologic response after preoperative systemic chemoimmunotherapy.

Altered Metabolic Profile of Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins in Gut-Lymph of Rodent Models of Sepsis and Gut Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

BACKGROUND: Triglyceride-rich lipoproteins are important in dietary lipid absorption and subsequent energy distribution in the body. Their importance in the gut-lymph may have been overlooked in sepsis, the most common cause of critical illness, and in gut ischemia-reperfusion injury, a common feature of many critical illnesses. AIMS: We aimed to undertake an exploratory study of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein fractions in gut-lymph using untargeted metabolic profiling to identify altered metabolites in sepsis or gut ischemia-reperfusion. METHODS: The gut-lymph was collected from rodent sham, sepsis, and gut ischemia-reperfusion models. The triglyceride-rich lipoprotein-enriched fractions isolated from the gut-lymph were subjected to a dual metabolomics analysis approach: non-polar metabolite analysis by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and polar metabolite analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. RESULTS: The metabolite analysis of gut-lymph triglyceride-rich lipoprotein fractions revealed a significant increase (FDR-adjusted P value < 0.05) in myo-inositol in the sepsis group and monoacylglycerols [(18:1) and (18:2)] in gut ischemia-reperfusion. There were no significantly increased specific metabolites in the lipoprotein-enriched fractions of both sepsis and gut ischemia-reperfusion. In contrast, there was a widespread decrease in multiple lipid species in sepsis (35 out of 190; adjusted P < 0.05), but not in the gut ischemia-reperfusion. CONCLUSIONS: Increased levels of myo-inositol and monoacylglycerols, and decreased multiple lipid species in the gut-lymph triglyceride-rich lipoprotein fraction could be candidates for new biomarkers and/or involved in the progression of sepsis and gut ischemia-reperfusion pathobiology.