Safety and Feasibility of Thoracic Malignancy Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has decreased surgical activity, particularly in the field of oncology, because of the suspicion of a higher risk of COVID-19–related severe events. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and safety of thoracic cancer surgery in the most severely affected European and Canadian regions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study investigators prospectively collected data on surgical procedures for malignant thoracic diseases from January 1 to April 30, 2020. The study included patients from 6 high-volume thoracic surgery departments: Nancy and Strasbourg (France), Freiburg (Germany), Milan and Turin (Italy), and Montreal (Canada). The centers involved in this research are all located in the most severely affected regions of those countries. An assessment of COVID-19–related symptoms, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)–confirmed COVID-19 infection, rates of hospital and intensive care unit admissions, and death was performed for each patient. Every deceased patient was tested for COVID-19 by PCR. Results: In the study period, 731 patients who underwent 734 surgical procedures were included. In the whole cohort, 9 cases (1.2%) of COVID-19 were confirmed by PCR, including 5 in-hospital contaminants. Four patients (0.5%) needed readmission for oxygen requirements. In this subgroup, 2 patients (0.3%) needed intensive care unit and mechanical ventilatory support. The total number of deaths in the whole cohort was 22 (3%). A single death was related to COVID-19 (0.14%). Conclusions: Maintaining surgical oncologic activity in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic seems safe and feasible, with very low postoperative morbidity or mortality. To continue to offer the best care to patients who do not have COVID-19, reports on other diseases are urgently needed

Autoimmune diseases in centrally reviewed thymic epithelial tumours (TET)

BackgroundThere have been wide variations in the reported prevalence (up to 30%) of autoimmune disorders (AID) in TET patients (pts) in small single-center series. RYTHMIC (Réseau tumeurs THYMiques et Cancer) is a French network mandated to systematically discuss every case of TET. A histopathology central review of the samples is performed within a National Histopathological Tumor Board (NHTB). We aimed to assess the prevalence of AID in a large cohort after pathological central review.MethodsRYTHMIC database, hosted by IFCT (French Intergroup of Thoracic Cancerology), prospectively includes all consecutive pts with a diagnosis of TET discussed in French national or regional tumor boards. A expert pathological panel reviews all cases discussed during NHTBs. We analyzed epidemiological, clinical and pathological characteristics of pts.ResultsFrom January 2012 to December 2019, 2909 pts were included in the database. The median age at diagnosis of TET was 60 (range of 14-87), 53.6% were male. About 24% of the pts tumor samples (n=701) were centrally reviewed. In this subgroup of patients, the % of AID was overall similar to the whole cohort, 139/701 (19.8%). Three pts (2%) had more than 1 AID. Among the events, 96 were myasthenia gravis (MG) (69%), 9 Good’s syndrome (6.7%), 5 pure red cell aplasia (3.5%), 7 thyroiditis (5%) and 8 lupus (5.7%). Among pts presenting AID in the cohort (n=701), B2 was the most common subtype before and AB after central review, respectively. Before and after central review, the prevalence of different subtypes is shown in the table.ConclusionsAround 1 out of 5 TET patients present an AID. The highest prevalence of AID after pathological central review was in B3 then B2 and B1 subtypes. Immunotherapy should be restricted to thymic carcinoma where the rate of AID is the lowest (3.3%)

SEARCH FOR 2d(5/2) NEUTRON STATES IN Ni-69

Expérience GANILInternational audienceIt has been shown that the neutron 2d5=2 orbital has to be included in shell-model calculations to explain the large quadrupole collectivity observed in the Fe and Cr of N = 40 region, probably a new island of inversion similar to the one known for light nuclei around N = 20. Indeed, in these calculations using a large valence neutron space, the position, i.e. the singleparticle energy, of the 2d5=2 orbital is a crucial ingredient. The experiment discussed in this paper aims to determine the $\nu$1g9=2–$\nu$2d5=2 gap using the neutron stripping reaction d(68Ni; p)68Ni which has been performed at GANIL in inverse kinematics. Preliminary results are presented

Spectroscopy of Fe-61 via the neutron transfer reaction H-2(Fe-60, p)Fe-61

The direct component of the 60Fe(n,γ)61Fe cross section was investigated by populating the bound states of the 61Fe nucleus through the (d,pγ) transfer reaction in inverse kinematics using a radioactive beam of 60Fe at 27A MeV. The experiment was performed at GANIL using the MUST2 array and an annular double-sided silicon strip detector for the detection of the light charged particle in coincidence with the photons measured in the EXOGAM γ-ray detectors. For the first time, the spectroscopic factors of the first 3/2−, 5/2−, 1/2−, and 9/2+ states of 61Fe were deduced experimentally from an adiabatic distorted wave approximation analysis of the data. The obtained results show a very good agreement with the shell-model predictions. The calculated direct component of the (n,γ) cross section was found negligible and of about 2% of the total, indicating a dominant resonant component.status: publishe