European overview of sustainable policies and approaches in COST C25 member countries

The implementation of the principles and methods towards a Sustainable Construction varies across different countries in Europe. In some countries, the sustainability of the construction sector has been effectively taken into consideration over the last years, while in other its implementation is at an initial stage. Many reasons may be pointed out for this situation. Different countries have different understandings of what is entailed in Sustainable Construction. Different cultural and educational backgrounds, along with different priorities in each country, are also contributing for the lack of a common European approach. General frameworks, aiming to cover every aspect of Sustainable Construction and to provide a consistent and integrated approach, such as Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction, gave a major advance in the search for a common approach for the construction sector. However, general agreed methodologies and tools to make this common approach operational are still missing.European Science Foundation - COST Action C2

Safety and Efficacy of Bevacizumab in Cancer Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

The safety of bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and digestive and nondigestive cancers is poorly documented. We retrospectively evaluated patient records of all adult cancer patients with IBD at our institution from April 2007 to May 2016 with an update in November 2019. Twenty-seven patients with a history of IBD (Crohn's disease, n = 22; ulcerative colitis, n = 5) who were treated with bevacizumab and chemotherapy for metastatic solid tumors were identified. At the time of advanced cancer diagnosis, 18 patients had quiescent IBD, whereas 9 patients had moderately active IBD. Among those with moderately active IBD, five had received corticosteroids less than six months prior to cancer diagnosis and one had received infliximab. The treated cancers were colorectal cancer (n = 13), small bowel cancer (n = 4), non-small cell lung cancer (n = 3), breast cancer (n = 3), and other cancers (n = 4). Patients received bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy and/or as maintenance for a median of 6.7 months. Grade 2 or higher bevacizumab-related complications were proteinuria in two patients and hypertension, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and intestinal perforation in one patient each. No clinical IBD flares were observed during bevacizumab treatment. Bevacizumab combined with chemotherapy is safe in cancer patients with moderately active or quiescent IBD

Clinical outcomes by infusion timing of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Background: We aimed to determine whether immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) time-of-day infusion might influence the survival of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We retrospectively analysed patients who received single-agent anti-PD-(L)1 therapy in any line between 2016 and 2021. We calculated by Cox regression models the association between the proportion of ICI infusions received after 16:30h and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Results: 180 patients were included, 77% received ICI as second- or further-line (median of 12 infusions/patient). The median age was 65 years (IQR 57–70), 112 patients (62%) were male, 165 (92%) were current or former tobacco smokers, 140 (78%) had performance status (PS) 0 or 1, 26 (14%) were on steroid therapy at ICI initiation. Histology was non-squamous for 139 (77%), the median number of metastatic sites was 3, and 33% had brain metastases. Patients who received at least 20% of ICI infusions after 16:30h (65 out of 180, 36%) had a statistically significant shorter median PFS as compared with patients receiving less than 20% of infusions in the evening (4.9 vs 9.4 months, log-rank p = 0.020), while numerical but not statistical shorter OS was observed (14.0 vs 26.2 months, log-rank p = 0.090). In the multivariate analysis, receiving at least 20% of evening infusions did not significantly increase the risk of death, while PS and line of treatment were significantly correlated with the OS. On the contrary, a proportion of ICI administration after 16:30h ≥20% conferred an HR for the PFS of 1.44 (95% CI: 1.01–2.05, p = 0.043), but this prognostic effect was not found when including in the model the total number of ICI infusions received (HR 1.20, 95% CI: 0.83–1.75, p = 0.329). Conclusion: Time-of-day infusion of ICI may impact the survival of patients with advanced NSCLC. Underlying prognostic characteristics and the number of infusions received could represent conceivable confounding factors, linked to increased variance related to ICI infusion timing. Nonetheless, further studies may unravel chronobiological mechanisms modulating ICI efficacy