The impact of tamoxifen treatment on voice parameters in premenopausal women with breast cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The study aims to investigate the estrogen-agonistic effects of tamoxifen on voice parameters in premenopausal women diagnosed with breast cancer. METHODS: A total of 108 premenopausal women were included, segmented into distinct treatment groups and a control group. Objective sound analysis was conducted using robust statistical methods, employing SPSS 25.0 for data analysis. RESULTS: The study identified a statistically significant reduction in Jitter values across all treatment groups compared to the control group. No significant changes were observed in other voice quality parameters such as F0, Shimmer, NHR, and HNR. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that tamoxifen may have an estrogen-agonistic effect on voice quality, thereby potentially influencing future treatment protocols. This research fills a critical void in existing literature and sets the stage for more comprehensive studies that consider affects of hormonal therapies to voice.

Effect of Microsatellite Status and Pan-Immune-Inflammation Score on Pathological Response in Patients with Clinical Stage III Stomach Cancer Treated with Perioperative Chemotherapy.

Background and Objective: This study evaluated the relationship between microsatellite status (MSI) and pan-immune-inflammation score (PIV) in tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in patients with clinical stage III gastric cancer (cStage III GC). Materials and Methods: Microsatellite instability (MSI) status was evaluated based on pathology preparations. Pan-immune-inflammation score (PIV) was obtained from pre-treatment blood tests. The relationship of both parameters with pathological complete response (pCR) was evaluated. Results: A total of 104 patients were included in this study. All the patients were stage III GC patients receiving perioperative treatment. There were 13 patients in total who achieved a pCR response. While CNS was detected in 11 of the patients who achieved a pCR, the MSI status of the other two patients was unknown. No pCR was observed in any patient with MSI-H. According to the cut-off value for PIV, 25 (24%) patients were in the PIV-low (≤53.9) group, while 79 (76%) were in the PIV-high (>53.9) group. Based on univariate analysis, a higher PIV was associated with worse outcomes for pathological response, disease recurrence, and survival (p < 0.05). Conclusions: In patients with clinically stage III GC, the presence of MSI-H may predict no benefit from perioperative treatment. Conversely, a pre-treatment PIV score using specific cut-off values may provide a positive prediction of pathological response and survival.

Evaluation of antibody response after two doses of the Sinovac vaccine and the potential need for booster doses in cancer patients.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is more severe in some specific patient groups, such as cancer patients with a mortality rate of 26.5%. The main way of protection is vaccination. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the antibody responses of our cancer patients who received two doses of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Sinovac Life Sciences. Patients over the age of 18, who had not been suspected or polymerase chain reaction-confirmed COVID-19 positive, who received two doses of the vaccine, and at least 28 days passed after the second dose, and who received at least one dose of cancer treatment before the vaccination-were included in the study. Immunoglobulin class G antibodies against the receptor binding region (S-RBD) of the spike protein S1 subunit of SARS-CoV-2 were studied. A total of 200 patients with a diagnosis of cancer were included in the study. The median time between the second dose of the Sinovac vaccine and the time of blood collection was 3.44 (3.20-3.84) months. SARS-CoV-2 antibody positivity was detected in 110 (55%) patients. The two subgroups with the highest antibody levels were gynecological cancers and breast cancers, with median 158.5 AU/ml (38.4-764.5) and 106.3 AU/ml (61.9-162.9) levels, respectively. Antibody positivity rate was 46.8% in patients who received chemotherapy at any time between the first dose of the vaccine and the date of blood collection; and it was 73.8% in the group that did not receive chemotherapy (p < 0.001). As a result, the expected antibody response was not obtained with two doses of the Sinovac vaccine. Therefore, if the Sinovac vaccine is to be preferred for these patients, the appropriate booster time for the third dose should be determined or other vaccines, such as messenger RNA vaccines, with reported higher antibody responses should be considered.

Prognostic Importance of Inflammatory Indexes in Patients Treated by Pazopanib for Soft Tissue Sarcoma.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to evaluate the predictive and prognostic importance of the lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (DNLR), and systemic immune inflammation index (SSI) in STS cases treated with pazopanib. METHODS: Thirty STS patients treated with pazopanib were included in this study. SSI, DNLR, LMR, and NLR values were calculated at baseline and in the first month. Median values of these predictors in these patients (SSI (944), DNLR (1.8), LMR (2.7), and NLR (3.0)) were taken as cutoff values. The associations between the survival time (both overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS)) and cutoff values were evaluated using Kaplan Meier curves and Cox regression models. RESULTS: Patients with low SSI, NLR, and DNLR values at pretreatment and after the initial response had longer OS (for OS - p = 0.024, p = 0.015, and p = 0.041, respectively). Longer OS was also found in patients who showed increasing LMR and decreasing NLR after one month of therapy (for ΔLMR, p = 0.016; for ΔNLR, p = 0.016). Pa-tients with low SSI and NLR values at pretreatment and after the initial response had longer PFS (for PFS, p = 0.014, p = 0.04, p ˂ 0.001, respectively). In terms of initial responses to treatment, SSI, NLR, DNLR, and increased LMR were detected as independent risk factors in univariate analysis, but initial response was found to be the only independent risk factor for PFS in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Low values of SSI, NLR, and DNLR at pretreatment and at initial response may predict long-term survival rates. After one month of treatment with pazopanib, decreased NLR and increased LMR are predictive of favorable outcomes in these cases.