Nomograms for predicting overall survival and cancer-specific survival in elderly patients with epithelial ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUND: Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the most fatal gynecological malignancies among elderly patients. We aim to construct two nomograms to predict the overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in elderly EOC patients. METHODS: Elderly patients with EOC between 2000 and 2019 were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Enrolled patients were randomly divided into the training and validation set at a ratio of 2:1. The OS and CSS were recognized as endpoint times. The independent prognostic factors from the multivariate analysis were used to establish nomograms for predicting the 3-, 5- and 10-year OS and CSS of elderly EOC patients. The improvement of predictive ability and clinical benefits were evaluated by consistency index (C-index), receiver operating characteristic (ROC), calibration curve, decision curve (DCA), net reclassification improvement (NRI), and integrated discrimination improvement (IDI). Finally, the treatment efficacy of surgery and chemotherapy in low-, medium-, and high-risk groups were displayed by Kaplan-Meier curves. RESULTS: Five thousand five hundred eighty-eight elderly EOC patients were obtained and randomly assigned to the training set (n = 3724) and validation set (n = 1864). The independent prognostic factors were utilized to construct nomograms for OS and CSS. Dynamic nomograms were also developed. The C-index of the OS nomogram and CSS nomogram were 0.713 and 0.729 in the training cohort. In the validation cohort, the C-index of the OS nomogram and CSS nomogram were 0.751 and 0.702. The calibration curve demonstrated good concordance between the predicted survival rates and actual observations. Moreover, the NRI, IDI, and DCA curves determined the outperformance of the nomogram compared with the AJCC stage system. Besides, local tumor resection had a higher benefit on the prognosis in all patients. Chemotherapy had a better prognosis in the high-risk groups, but not for the medium- risk and low-risk groups. CONCLUSIONS: We developed and validated nomograms for predicting OS and CSS in elderly EOC patients to help gynecologists to develop an appropriate individualized therapeutic schedule.

Effect of modified radical mastectomy combined with latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap breast reconstruction on patients' psychology and quality of life.

BACKGROUND: Breast carcinoma (BC) is a commonly seen malignancy in women. Although traditional radical mastectomy can improve the survival of patients, it can cause breast loss and chest wall deformities, which seriously affects the daily life of patients and causes anxiety and depression. The purpose of this research project is to investigate the effect of breast reconstruction with latissimus dorsi myocutaneous flap (LDMF) after nipple- and areola-sparing modified radical mastectomy (MRM) on the psychological mood and quality of life (QoL) of patients with stage I BC. METHODS: A total of 102 patients with BC (research group, RG) treated in the Shanghai Fifth People's Hospital, Fudan University from January 2018 to December 2020 were selected for phase I breast reconstruction with LDMF after nipple- and areola-sparing MRM. Concurrently, 50 BC patients (control group, CG) who underwent traditional total mastectomy in our hospital were collected. The activities of daily living (ADL), self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS) scores were observed before and 1 month after treatment. The intraoperative indicators, postoperative complications, postoperative satisfaction rate and overall survival rate were compared. RESULTS: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast Cancer (FACT-B) score was higher after treatment, while SAS and SDS scores were lower in RG than in CG (P<0.05). No statistical difference was observed in intraoperative blood loss, wound drainage time, operation time, postoperative complications and overall survival rate between the two cohorts (P>0.05). RG showed higher satisfaction degree and overall satisfaction rate, as well as better QoL than CG (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Breast reconstruction with LDMF after nipple- and areola-sparing MRM can alleviate adverse emotions of patients with stage I BC and improve their QoL.

Development of an XBP1 agonist, HLJ2, as a potential therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis / 中国药理学与毒理学杂志

OBJECTIVE To identify the valid targets and new drugs of ulcerative colitis (UC), a recurrent and intractable inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS and RESULTS In an in vivo mouse model of DSS-induced colitis, HLJ2 decreased weight loss, colon contracture, disease activity index (DAI), colon mucosa damage index (CMDI) and histopathological index (HI). HLJ2 also decreased myelo?peroxidase(MPO) activity and reduced production of the inflammatory cytokines TNF- α, IL- 1β, andIL- 6. HLJ2 improved intestinal mucosa damage induced by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) and increased the expression of ZO-1 and claudin-1. Fecal 16s rRNA high-throughput sequencing demon?strated a significant improvement in UC intestinal dysbacteriosis in mice treated with HLJ2, including increased abundance of probiotics such as Lachnospiraceae, Prevotellaceae, and Lactobacillaceae. At the same time there was a reduction in the abundance of pathogenic or conditional pathogenic microor?ganisms such as Bacteroidaceae, Porphyromonadaceae, Deferribacteraceae, and Pseudomonadaceae in HLJ2- treated mice compared with untreated mice. CONCLUSION Our results demonstrated that the XBP1 agonist HLJ2 inhibits inflammation, regulates the intestinal flora, and protects the intestinal mucosa. It is thus a potential therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis.