The Role of High Dose Chemotherapy with Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplant in Relapsed/Refractory Ovarian Germ Cell Tumors: A Single Center Experience.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate response rates, survival analyses and factors affecting survival in patients with relapsed or refractory ovarian germ cell tumours who had previously received multiple lines of treatment, including high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). METHODS: This study was designed as a cross-sectional, retrospective study. RESULTS: Twenty-one patients were included. After HDC + ASCT, complete response (CR) was observed in 11 patients (52.3%), partial response (PR) in 3 patients (14.3%), stable disease (SD) in 3 patients (14.3%) and progressive disease (PD) in 4 patients (19.1%). TRM was observed in 1 patient. Median follow-up was 51.7 months. Median PFS and OS after HDC + ASCT were calculated to be 6.0 months and 14.8 months, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Salvage HDC + ASCT is an effective option in the treatment of relapsed/refractory ovarian germ cell tumours, offering the potential for prolonged survival and cure.

Efficacy of first-line CDK 4-6 inhibitors in premenopausal patients with metastatic breast cancer and the effect of dose reduction due to treatment-related neutropenia on efficacy: a Turkish Oncology Group (TOG) study.

The only phase 3 study on the effectiveness of CDK 4-6 inhibitors in first-line treatment in premenopausal patients with hormone receptor (HR) positive, HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer is the MONALEESA-7 study, and data on the effectiveness of palbociclib is limited. Data are also limited regarding the effectiveness of CDK 4-6 inhibitors in patients whose dose was reduced due to neutropenia, the most common side effect of CDK 4-6 inhibitors. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of palbociclib and ribociclib in first-line treatment in patients with premenopausal metastatic breast cancer and the effect of dose reduction due to neutropenia on progression-free survival. Our study is a multicenter, retrospective study, and factors affecting progression-free survival (PFS) were examined in patients diagnosed with metastatic premenopausal breast cancer from 29 different centers and receiving combination therapy containing palbociclib or ribociclib in the metastatic stage. 319 patients were included in the study. The mPFS for patients treated with palbociclib was 26.83 months, and for those receiving ribociclib, the mPFS was 29.86 months (p = 0.924). mPFS was 32.00 months in patients who received a reduced dose, and mPFS was 25.96 months in patients who could take the initial dose, and there was no statistical difference (p = 0.238). Liver metastasis, using a fulvestrant together with a CDK 4-6 inhibitor, ECOG PS 1 was found to be a negative prognostic factor. No new adverse events were observed. In our study, we found PFS over 27 months in patients diagnosed with premenopausal breast cancer with CDK 4-6 inhibitors used in first-line treatment, similar to post-menopausal patients. We did not detect any difference between the effectiveness of the two CDK 4-6 inhibitors, and we showed that there was no decrease in the effectiveness of the CDK 4-6 inhibitor in patients whose dose was reduced due to neutropenia.

Clinical presentation and course of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 in patients with various types of cancer: A retrospective case-control analysis of an experienced cancer center in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: Cancers have been reported to worsen the clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. We aimed to demonstrate the real-life data on health outcomes in COVID-19-infected cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the data of 43 COVID-19-infected cancer patients in our COVID-19 clinics between March 25, 2020, and May 9, 2020, retrospectively. RESULTS: We determined that 1051 patients were followed up with COVID-19 infection and 43 (4%) of them were cancer patients. The mean age of the patients was 64.3 ± 12.3 years. Lung cancer is the most common cancer type among the patients (23.2%). Dyspnea (51.2%) was the most common symptom in the first admission. Typical ground-glass consolidation or patchy appearance with peribronchial thickening resembling bronchopneumonia on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) was present in 29 (67.4%) patients. COVID-19 was diagnosed in 14 (32.5%) patients based on reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis of nose-throat swab samples without any sign of lung involvement on HRCT. Total mortality of the COVID-19 infection was 46.5% (n = 20). Presence of heart disease (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.5; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.29-9.4), previous surgeries to the respiratory system (HR: 6.95; 95% CI: 1.29-27.7), and presence of dyspnea at admission (HR: 4; 95% CI: 1.31-12.3) were statistically significantly associated with death (P = 0.01, 0.02, and 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our practices supported that cancer patients were more affected by COVID-19 disease than the normal population. However, our findings can not be generalized due to being retrospective and single centered study, Also, we did not compare the findings with noncancer patients with COVID19 disease.