Outcome of relapsing Clostridium difficile infections do not correlate with virulence-, spore- and vegetative cell-associated phenotypes

One of the main clinical challenges of Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) is the high rate of relapse episodes. The main determinants involved in relapse of CDI include the presence of antibiotic-resistant C. difficile spores in the colonic environment and a permanent state of dysbiosis of the microbiota caused by antibiotic therapy. A possible scenario is that phenotypes related to the persistence of C. difficile spores might contribute to relapsing infections. In this study, 8 C. difficile isolates recovered from 4 cases with relapsing infection, and 9 isolates recovered from single infection cases were analyzed for PCR ribotyping and the presence of tcdA, tcdB and cdtAB genes. Factors associated to spore persistence, sporulation, spore adherence and biofilm formation and sporulation during biofilm formation were characterized. We also evaluated motility and cytotoxicity. However, we observed no significant difference in the analyzed phenotypes among the different clinical outcomes, most likely due to the high variability observed among strains within clinical backgrounds in each phenotype and the small sample size. It is noteworthy that C. difficile spores adhered to similar extents to undifferentiated and differentiated Caco-2 cells. By contrast, spores of all clinical isolates tested had increased germination efficiency in presence of taurocholate, while decreased sporulation rate during biofilm development in the presence of glucose. In conclusion, these results show that, at least in this cohort of patients, the described phenotypes are not detrimental in the clinical outcome of the disease

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AimThe SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery.MethodsThis was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin.ResultsOverall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P ConclusionOne in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease