The crucial role of age and site in incidence and prognosis of female neuroendocrine neoplasms in the United States: a population-based study from 2000 to 2018.

BACKGROUND: As the incidence continues to rise, global concern about neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) is mounting. However, little is known about how NENs affect women patients. METHODS: The annual percentage change (APC) was calculated to describe the incidence. Cox proportional hazards multivariable regression was used to identify risk factors. The nomograms were employed to estimate prognosis. RESULTS: A total of 39,237 female NENs (fNENs) cases were identified. The incidence of fNENs increased annually (APC = 4.5, 95% CI 4.1-4.8, P < 0.05), and the incidence pattern and survival outcomes showed age and site-specificity. Appendiceal, rectal, and pulmonary fNENs were major contributors to the incidence of patients younger than 40, between 40-59, and over 60 years old, respectively. The Cox proportional hazards regression model revealed that age, tumor size, grade, stage, and primary sites were closely related to survival. The worst survival outcomes appeared in breast, reproductive system, and liver fNENs for patients under 40, between 40-49, and over 50 years old, respectively. A nomogram based on these developed with higher predictive accuracy of prognosis, with a C index of 0.906 in the training cohort and 0.901 in the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings revealed distinct site-specific tendencies in the incidence and survival patterns among fNEN patients across various age groups. Thus, reasonable patient screening and stratification strategies should be implemented, especially for young patients.

An immune-related gene prognostic prediction risk model for neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in rectal cancer using artificial intelligence.

Background: This study aimed to establish and validate a prognostic model based on immune-related genes (IRGPM) for predicting disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and to elucidate the immune profiles associated with different prognostic outcomes. Methods: Transcriptomic and clinical data were sourced from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and the West China Hospital database. We focused on genes from the RNA immune-oncology panel. The elastic net approach was employed to pinpoint immune-related genes significantly impacting DFS. We developed the IRGPM for rectal cancer using the random forest technique. Based on the IRGPM, we calculated prognostic risk scores to categorize patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. Comparative analysis of immune characteristics between these groups was conducted. Results: In this study, 407 LARC samples were analyzed. The elastic net identified a signature of 20 immune-related genes, forming the basis of the IRGPM. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed a lower 5-year DFS in the high-risk group compared to the low-risk group. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve affirmed the model's robust predictive capability. Validation of the model was performed in the GSE190826 cohort and our institution's cohort. Gene expression differences between high-risk and low-risk groups predominantly related to cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions. Notably, the low-risk group exhibited higher immune scores. Further analysis indicated a greater presence of activated B cells, activated CD8 T cells, central memory CD8 T cells, macrophages, T follicular helper cells, and type 2 helper cells in the low-risk group. Additionally, immune checkpoint analysis revealed elevated PDCD1 expression in the low-risk group. Conclusions: The IRGPM, developed through random forest and elastic net methodologies, demonstrates potential in distinguishing DFS among LARC patients receiving standard treatment. Notably, the low-risk group, as defined by the IRGPM, showed enhanced activation of adaptive immune responses within the tumor microenvironment.

Response to Savolitinib in a Patient with Advanced Poorly Differentiated Lung Carcinoma Positive for a Novel EML4-MET Gene Fusion.

Background: Cellular-mesenchymal to epithelial transition factor (c-MET) alterations have significant therapeutic implications in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Although MET fusion is a rare genomic event, advances in detection technologies have enabled the identification of various MET fusion partner genes. However, standard therapeutic options for MET fusion in NSCLC cases remain undefined. This report presents a novel fusion variant, EML4-MET, encompassing exons 1 to 13 of EML4 and exons 15 to 21 of MET, including the entire MET kinase domain, and discusses the response of this case to savolitinib treatment. Case Presentation: A 65-year-old woman was diagnosed with advanced poorly differentiated lung carcinoma. Molecular profiling of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), carried out by next-generation sequencing (NGS), identified a novel EML4-MET fusion. The patient was administered the MET receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor savolitinib at 400 mg daily. One month later, computed tomography (CT) revealed some lesions with volume reduction. However, COVID-19 diminished the efficacy of savolitinib. Regrettably, the patient succumbed to respiratory and circulatory failure due to disease progression in March 2023. Conclusion: This case uncovers a new type of MET fusion and expands the range of potential MET fusion targets in NSCLC. The patient responded to savolitinib, suggesting a reference basis for the treatment of similar cases with EML4-MET fusion in the future. Additional research is warranted to assess the biological significance of the EML4-MET fusion in NSCLC.

Efficacy and safety of reduced-dose chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in patients with lung squamous cell carcinoma: A real-world observational study.

BACKGROUND: Recently, chemotherapy plus immunotherapy has achieved remarkable efficacy in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC). However, some patients, especially frail people, cannot tolerate full-dose chemotherapy in the real world. To reduce toxicity, appropriate dose reduction in chemotherapy is necessary. Therefore, this study aimed to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of reduced-dose chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in LUSC patients in the real world. METHODS: A real-world observational study was conducted concerning patients who received chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in our situation. The primary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR), and the secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicity. RESULTS: Between December 2018 and January 2022, 110 patients were enrolled, of whom 54 patients were chemotherapy reduced-dose group and 56 patients were chemotherapy standard-dose group. The ORR in the reduced-dose group is similar to standard-dose group (85.19% vs. 71.43%, p = 0.082). Similar DCR were observed (100% vs. 94.64%, p = 0.086). Median PFS was 12 months in the reduced-dose group and standard-dose group, respectively. Median OS was 15 months and 16 months in the reduced-dose group and standard-dose group, respectively. We reported a lower incidence of grade 3-4 toxicity in the reduced-dose group compared with standard-dose group (27.78% vs. 42.86%, p = 0.100). The major toxic reactions were better alleviated in the reduced-dose group than in the standard-dose group, especially in the thrombocytopenia (p = 0.044), peripheral nerve damage (p = 0.001), gastrointestinal reactions (p < 0.0001), and fatigue (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The modified regimen with attenuated doses of chemotherapy in combination with immunotherapy was effective and well tolerated in patients with LUSC. The efficacy of this modified regimen is similar to that of the full-dose regimen.

Predicting Rectal Cancer Response to Total Neoadjuvant Treatment Using an Artificial Intelligence Model Based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Clinical Data.

PURPOSE: To develop a model for predicting response to total neoadjuvant treatment (TNT) for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) based on baseline magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and clinical data using artificial intelligence methods. METHODS: Baseline MRI and clinical data were curated from patients with LARC and analyzed using logistic regression (LR) and deep learning (DL) methods to predict TNT response retrospectively. We defined two groups of response to TNT as pathological complete response (pCR) versus non-pCR (Group 1), and high sensitivity [tumor regression grade (TRG) 0 and TRG 1] versus moderate sensitivity (TRG 2 or patients with TRG 3 and a reduction in tumor volume of at least 20% compared to baseline) versus low sensitivity (TRG 3 and a reduction in tumor volume <20% compared to baseline) (Group 2). We extracted and selected clinical and radiomic features on baseline T2WI. Then we built LR models and DL models. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis was performed to assess predictive performance of models. RESULTS: Eighty-nine patients were assigned to the training cohort, and 29 patients were assigned to the testing cohort. The area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of LR models, which were predictive of high sensitivity and pCR, were 0.853 and 0.866, respectively. Whereas the AUCs of DL models were 0.829 and 0.838, respectively. After 10 rounds of cross validation, the accuracy of the models in Group 1 is higher than in Group 2. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between LR model and DL model. Artificial Intelligence-based radiomics biomarkers may have potential clinical implications for adaptive and personalized therapy.

Delineation of clinical target volume and organs at risk in cervical cancer radiotherapy by deep learning networks.

PURPOSE: Delineation of the clinical target volume (CTV) and organs-at-risk (OARs) is important in cervical cancer radiotherapy. But it is generally labor-intensive, time-consuming, and subjective. This paper proposes a parallel-path attention fusion network (PPAF-net) to overcome these disadvantages in the delineation task. METHODS: The PPAF-net utilizes both the texture and structure information of CTV and OARs by employing a U-Net network to capture the high-level texture information, and an up-sampling and down-sampling (USDS) network to capture the low-level structure information to accentuate the boundaries of CTV and OARs. Multi-level features extracted from both networks are then fused together through an attention module to generate the delineation result. RESULTS: The dataset contains 276 computed tomography (CT) scans of patients with cervical cancer of staging IB-IIA. The images are provided by the West China Hospital of Sichuan University. Simulation results demonstrate that PPAF-net performs favorably on the delineation of the CTV and OARs (e.g., rectum, bladder and etc.) and achieves the state-of-the-art delineation accuracy, respectively, for the CTV and OARs. In terms of the Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) and the Hausdorff Distance (HD), 88.61% and 2.25 cm for the CTV, 92.27% and 0.73 cm for the rectum, 96.74% and 0.68 cm for the bladder, 96.38% and 0.65 cm for the left kidney, 96.79% and 0.63 cm for the right kidney, 93.42% and 0.52 cm for the left femoral head, 93.69% and 0.51 cm for the right femoral head, 87.53% and 1.07 cm for the small intestine, and 91.50% and 0.84 cm for the spinal cord. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automatic delineation network PPAF-net performs well on CTV and OARs segmentation tasks, which has great potential for reducing the burden of radiation oncologists and increasing the accuracy of delineation. In future, radiation oncologists from the West China Hospital of Sichuan University will further evaluate the results of network delineation, making this method helpful in clinical practice.

Long-Term Follow-Up Results of Adjuvant Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy with Concurrent Paclitaxel and Cisplatin in High-Risk Endometrial Cancer Patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively review the outcomes of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer treated with adjuvant radiotherapy with concurrent paclitaxel and cisplatin (TP). Methods: Patients with endometrial cancer who underwent radical surgery were screened between Jan 2005 and Dec 2018. Patients with high-risk factors who received adjuvant chemoradiotherapy were included in the study. High risks included stage I, endometrioid-type grade 3 with deep myometrial invasion or lymphovascular space invasion (or both), endometrioid-type stage II to IVa, or stage I to III with serous or clear cell histology. The adjuvant treatment regimen included one cycle of TP chemotherapy, followed by pelvic intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) with concurrent TP, followed by an additional one cycle of TP. Failure free survival (FFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated. Patterns of recurrence and occurrence of adverse events were described. Results: A total of 450 patients with high-risk endometrial cancer were screened, 231 of whom were included in this study. After a median follow-up of 70 months, the 5-year OS was 94.7%, and the 6-year OS was 91.8%. The 5-y and 6-y FFS were 90.8% and 87.9%, respectively, which were related to stage (P < 0.05). A total of 14 patients experienced tumor recurrence, including 7 pelvic recurrence and 7 distant metastases. Seven patients died, all due to tumor progression. A total of 164 patients (71%) completed the prescribed course of treatment. A total of 205 patients had adverse events, 46 patients (20%) had grade 1, 92 patients (40%) had grade 2, 49 patients (21%) had grade 3, and 18 patients (8%) had grade 4. There were 83 nonhematologic and 122 hematologic toxicities (26 grade 3 and 18 grade 4). Conclusion: Adjuvant pelvic radiotherapy combined with synchronous TP chemotherapy can achieve excellent long-term survival for high-risk endometrial cancer patients. Moreover, this combination therapy has good safety and feasibility, which is worthy of further study and verification.

Predicting Response to Total Neoadjuvant Treatment (TNT) in Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer Based on Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Retrospective Study.

PURPOSE: To investigate the potential value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting response relevance to total neoadjuvant treatment (TNT) in locally advanced rectal cancer. METHODS: We analyzed MRI of 71 patients underwent TNT from 2015 to 2017 retrospectively. We categorized the response of TNT as CR (complete response) vs non-CR, and high vs moderate vs low sensitivity. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the best predictors of response. Diagnostic performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. RESULTS: Post-ICT (induction chemotherapy) ∆TL (tumor length), post-CRT (concurrent chemoradiotherapy) ∆LNN (the numbers of lymph node metastases), post-CCT (consolidation chemotherapy) ∆SDWI (maximum cross-sectional area of tumor on diffusion-weighted imaging), post-CCT ADCT (the mean apparent diffusion coefficient values of tumor) and post-CCT ∆LNV (volume of lymph node) were the best CR predictors. Post-ICT ∆TL, post-CRT EMVI (extramural vascular invasion) and post-CCT ∆ST2 (S on T2-weight) were the best significant factors for high sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Post-ICT ∆TL may be an early predictor of CR and high sensitivity to TNT. Dynamic analysis based on MRI between baseline and post-CCT could provide the most valuable prediction of CR. The grouping modality of CR vs non-CR may be more suitable for treatment response prediction than high vs moderate vs low sensitivity.

Radiotherapy Combined with Chemotherapy for Regional Lymph Node Recurrence in Gastric Cancer.

PURPOSE: Regional lymph node recurrence (RLNR) in gastric cancer is uncommon. We investigated the effects of radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy against limited RLNR and analyzed the regularity of regional lymph node recurrence and metastasis. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 34 gastric cancer patients with limited RLNR after D2 lymphadenectomy between January 2012 and May 2018. All patients received systemic chemotherapy and local radiotherapy with median dose of 52.5 Gy (30-66 Gy in fractions of 1.8-3.0 Gy daily, five times weekly). All sites of recurrent and metastatic lymph nodes were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: The median follow-up was 19 months (range 7-60 months). After treatment, complete response and partial response were observed in 32.4% and 55.9% of patients, respectively. The median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were 18 months and 13 months. On multivariate analysis, age (≤60 vs >60) was associated with a significantly better OS (p = 0.025) and radiation dose (<54 Gy vs ≥54 Gy) was considered as an independent prognostic factor for PFS (p = 0.000). During radiotherapy, three patients developed grade 3 gastrointestinal toxicity, and no deaths were related to the treatments. The most commonly metastatic lymph nodes were the No. 4, No. 3, No. 6, No. 5, No. 7, No. 9, and No. 8 nodes; the recurrent lymph nodes were mainly located in the No. 16b, No. 16a, No. 9, No. 14, No. 7, No. 13, and No. 8 nodes. CONCLUSION: The selected gastric cancer patients with limited RLNR may benefit from radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. High-dose radiotherapy (≥54 Gy) lead to better PFS and tend to extend OS. The major lymph node recurrence sites were in the gastric vascular region (especially No. 16a/b nodes).

The Role of Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Metastases from Colorectal Cancer.

PURPOSE: Retroperitoneal lymph node metastases are rare in colorectal cancer. Optimal treatment strategies are still unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled colorectal cancer patients who had received radiotherapy for retroperitoneal lymph node metastases from 2009 to 2018. Patients with isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases or retroperitoneal lymph nodes with extra-retroperitoneal metastases were all included. A median dose of 60 Gy was delivered. RESULTS: A total of 68 patients were enrolled in this study; 28 (41%) of them had extra-retroperitoneal metastases. In the isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases group, complete response was found in 5 patients (12.5%), partial response was achieved in 20 patients (50%), 9 patients (22.5%) had stable disease. The 1-, 2- and 3-year local control rates were 87.5%, 77.5%, and 70%. In the extra-retroperitoneal metastases group, the disease control rate was 75%, including complete response in 1 patient (3.6%), partial response in 4 patients (14.3%) and stable disease in 16 patients (57.1%). The 1-, 2- and 3-year local control rates were 57.1%, 42.8%, and 0%. The median overall survival was 59.4 months and 19 months in the isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases group and extra-retroperitoneal metastases group, respectively. In the isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases group, the 1-year and 3-year overall survival values were 90.2% and 75.8%, respectively. The 1-year and 3-year progression-free survival values were 57.9% and 0%, respectively. The extra-retroperitoneal metastases group experienced worse survival outcome (1-year overall survival: 57.9%, P<0.05; and 1-year progression-free survival: 22.5%, P<0.05). CONCLUSION: For patients with isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases, radiotherapy combined with systemic treatment can be used as a method to achieve no evidence of disease and can result in good local control and survival. For patients with extra-retroperitoneal metastases, although the survival is much worse than that of isolated retroperitoneal lymph node metastases, radiotherapy is an effective palliative treatment to relieve pain and obstruction based on systemic treatment.