Research Progress on Patients of Esophageal Cancer Complicated with Sarcopenia.

Aims/Background The application of immunochemotherapy has significantly enhanced the quality of life and overall survival of patients with esophageal cancer. Sarcopenia, which is increasingly prevalent in these patients, markedly affects prognosis, but can be reversed by appropriate and effective treatment. Methods The narrative review was conducted on PubMed using the keywords ("esophageal" or "esophagus" and "sarcopenia"). Results This article reviews the measurement, timing, and intervention strategies for sarcopenia in patients with esophageal cancer. It summarizes the evaluation indicators of skeletal muscle loss in these patients, analyzes the barriers to intervention for frailty among esophageal cancer patients, and proposes corresponding countermeasures. Conclusion Patients with esophageal cancer often suffer from severe sarcopenia. Clinical intervention is crucial in addressing this issue.

[Clinical Study of Venetoclax Combined with Azacitidine in the Treatment of Patients with Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and side effects of venetoclax combined with azacitidine chemotherapy in the treatment of previously untreated adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia(AML). METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 48 untreated adult AML patients admitted to the Department of Hematology, Affiliated Hospital of Jinggangshan University from January 2020 to December 2022. Among them, 26 patients received venetoclax combined with azacitidine chemotherapy (observation group), and 22 patients received daunorubicin plus cytarabine chemotherapy (control group). The differences in complete response (CR) rate, objective response rate (ORR), progressionfree survival (PFS), overall survival(OS) and adverse reactions (AR) were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in age, sex ratio, absolute value of trilineage cell and proportion of bone marrow primordial cells between the two groups before treatment (all P >0.05). The CR rate and the ORR rate of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). After treatment, there were no significant difference in the adverse reactions such as myelosuppression, granulocytosis, secondary infection, mucosal damage, liver and kidney damage, cardiotoxicity and gastrointestinal toxicity between the two groups (P >0.05). The median PFS and the median OS of the observation group were significantly better than those of the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The remission rate of venetoclax combined with azacitidine was higher than that of conventional chemotherapy in previously untreated adult acute myeloid leukemia. Venetoclax combined with azacitidine chemotherapy could reduce hematologic related side reactions and prolong the remission period and survival of AML patients.

The Effect of Parental Phubbing on Depression in Chinese Junior High School Students: The Mediating Roles of Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction and Self-Esteem.

Objective: To reveal the relationship between parental phubbing, basic psychological needs satisfaction, self-esteem, and depression and to explore the impact of parental phubbing on depression. Methods: A total of 819 junior high school students responded to the parental phubbing scale, basic psychological needs satisfaction scale, self-esteem scale, and depression scale in combination. Results: (1) Parental phubbing was significantly correlated with satisfaction of basic psychological needs, self-esteem, and depression. (2) Parental phubbing can not only be used to directly predict depression in junior middle school students but also has an indirect impact on depression through three pathways: a separate mediating effect on basic psychological needs satisfaction, a separate mediating effect on self-esteem and a chain mediating effect on both. Conclusion: Parental phubbing is a risk factor for depression, which can negatively affect the mental health of junior high school students.

Low Humoral Immune Response and Ineffective Clearance of SARS-Cov-2 in a COVID-19 Patient With CLL During a 69-Day Follow-Up.

Background: A recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2), which began in Wuhan, China, with a high level of human-to-human transmission has been reported. There are limited data available on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with hematological malignancies with more than 60 days of follow-up. This study describes the clinical characteristics, including multiple recurrences of COVID-19, in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) during 69 days of follow-up. Case Presentation: A 72-year-old female was admitted to hospital isolation after being infected with COVID-19 as part of a family cluster on January 30, 2020. Apart from SARS-Cov-2 virus infection, laboratory results revealed lymphocytosis of uncertain etiology and abnormal distribution of T lymphocytes. On blood smears, small blue lymphocytes with scant cytoplasm were observed, and the presence of high levels of circulating clonal B cells was also demonstrated by flow cytometry. The patient was diagnosed with COVID-19 and CLL. Among her family members, she had the highest viral loads and the fastest progression on lung injury and developed severe pneumonia. Serological results showed she had both 2019-nCoV-specific IgM and IgG antibodies; however, only IgG antibodies were detected in her husband's plasma. Results: A combination regimen of antiviral therapy and high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in the early stage seemed to be effective for treating CLL and SARS-Cov-2 infection. Because of the low humoral immune response, the CLL patient could not effectively clear the SARS-Cov-2 infection and suffered from recurrence twice during the 69-day follow-up. Conclusion: In CLL, a neoplastic antigen-specific B-cell clone proliferates, and the progeny cells accumulate and outgrow other B cells, leading to immune deficiency. Considering the low humoral immune response and ineffective clearance of SARS-Cov-2 in CLL patients, the follow-up and home quarantine period should be extended. We need further studies to clarify suspending or continuing CLL therapy during COVID infection. For those patients who are prone to progression to severe disease, administering humoral immunity therapies can help to prevent disease progression and quickly meet the cure criteria.

Modified BuCy is an alternative conditioning regimen for lymphoma patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation.

The aim of this study is to determine whether the modified BuCy (semustine, cytarabine, busulfan, and cyclophosphamide, mBuCy) conditioning regimen can be safely used as an alternative to the SEAM (semustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan) regimen by comparing the efficacy and toxicity of the mBuCy and SEAM regimens. We matched 34 pairs of patients with regard to disease status at the time of autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT). We found no significant difference in the time of platelet engraftment between the two groups. Furthermore, neutrophil engraftment was somewhat faster in the mBuCy group than in the SEAM group (median: 9 days vs 10 days, p = 0.015). With regard to toxicity, the incidence of nausea/vomiting, hepatic impairment, renal impairment, pulmonary infection, and treatment-related mortality (TRM) was similar between the two groups. In addition, compared to patients conditioned with SEAM, patients conditioned with mBuCy were less likely to develop mucositis and diarrhea (p = 0.027; p = 0.050). The 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates in the mBuCy and SEAM groups were 79% and 70% (p = 0.378), respectively, and the 2-year overall survival (OS) rates were 81% and 78.0%, respectively (p = 0.789). These analyses showed that the mBuCy conditioning regimen was well tolerated and can be used as an alternative to the SEAM regimen for lymphoma.

BPLLDA: Predicting lncRNA-Disease Associations Based on Simple Paths With Limited Lengths in a Heterogeneous Network.

In recent years, it has been increasingly clear that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical roles in many biological processes associated with human diseases. Inferring potential lncRNA-disease associations is essential to reveal the secrets behind diseases, develop novel drugs, and optimize personalized treatments. However, biological experiments to validate lncRNA-disease associations are very time-consuming and costly. Thus, it is critical to develop effective computational models. In this study, we have proposed a method called BPLLDA to predict lncRNA-disease associations based on paths of fixed lengths in a heterogeneous lncRNA-disease association network. Specifically, BPLLDA first constructs a heterogeneous lncRNA-disease network by integrating the lncRNA-disease association network, the lncRNA functional similarity network, and the disease semantic similarity network. It then infers the probability of an lncRNA-disease association based on paths connecting them and their lengths in the network. Compared to existing methods, BPLLDA has a few advantages, including not demanding negative samples and the ability to predict associations related to novel lncRNAs or novel diseases. BPLLDA was applied to a canonical lncRNA-disease association database called LncRNADisease, together with two popular methods LRLSLDA and GrwLDA. The leave-one-out cross-validation areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of BPLLDA are 0.87117, 0.82403, and 0.78528, respectively, for predicting overall associations, associations related to novel lncRNAs, and associations related to novel diseases, higher than those of the two compared methods. In addition, cervical cancer, glioma, and non-small-cell lung cancer were selected as case studies, for which the predicted top five lncRNA-disease associations were verified by recently published literature. In summary, BPLLDA exhibits good performances in predicting novel lncRNA-disease associations and associations related to novel lncRNAs and diseases. It may contribute to the understanding of lncRNA-associated diseases like certain cancers.

Successful alternative treatment for relapsed adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia with dendritic cells-cytokine-induced killer cells combined with a rituximab-based regimen.

OBJECTIVE: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease characterized by the accumulation of lymphoblasts, and a poor prognosis for adults with ALL is closely associated with disease recurrence. Thus far, treatment approaches have been limited, particularly in patients who are unable to tolerate chemotherapy. In this study, we report an effective treatment for such patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 52-year-old man diagnosed with Ph-negative B-precursor ALL went into remission after inductive treatment. Unfortunately, when he subsequently relapsed, severe complications drove him to refuse intensive chemotherapy. Instead, he received a cycle of dendritic cells-cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) before chemotherapy. RESULT: The patient tolerated rituximab in combination with a vincristine, daunorubicin, l-asparaginase, and prednisone regimen without complications, and was in remission after DC-CIK infusion. After consolidation chemotherapy, including rituximab followed by eight cycles of DC-CIK, the patient has been free of leukemia for 2 years since the relapse. CONCLUSION: This case of relapsed ALL was successfully treated with DC-CIK combined with a rituximab regimen.