413 research outputs found
Prospective cohort study of febrile neutropenia in breast cancer patients administered with neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapies: CSPOR-BC FN study
Background
As Asians are more vulnerable to febrile neutropenia (FN) than Caucasians, evaluations of FN incidence and risk factors in Asians are important for the appropriate use of primary pegfilgrastim (PEG-G).
Patients and methods
Japanese breast cancer patients receiving standard adjuvant chemotherapies were prospectively enrolled in multicenter institutions from August 2015 to July 2017. FN was evaluated from 2 treatment policies: true FN (T-FN): ≥37.5 °C, grade 4 neutropenia, mandatory hospital visit (visiting); surrogate FN (S-FN): ≥37.5 °C, oral antibiotic, no mandatory visit (non-visiting). PEG-G was used at the physicians’ discretion. The primary endpoint was FN incidence during all cycles. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify T-FN risk factors.
Results
Of 1005 enrolled patients, 980 women treated with FEC, E(A)C, and TC were analyzed. The FN incidence proportions in all patients were 22.5%, 27.5%, and 33.9% for FEC, E(A)C, and TC, respectively. Those of T-FN were 27.7%, 22.4%, and 36.6%; those of S-FN were 17.3%, 32.4%, and 31.5% with more frequent primary PEG-G usage. The relative dose intensity (RDI) of the 3 regimens was ≥0.85 in both groups. In the analysis of risk factors, TC (odds ratio = 2.67), age ≥ 65 years (2.24), and pretreatment absolute neutrophil count (ANC)/1000 μl (0.8) remained significant.
Conclusions
FN incidences were above 20% in the 3 regimens, with TC showing the highest. RDI was maintained at a high level in both visiting and non-visiting groups. Patient-related risk factors were age and pretreatment ANC
Optimization of quantum noise in space gravitational-wave antenna DECIGO with optical-spring quantum locking considering mixture of vacuum fluctuations in homodyne detection
Quantum locking using optical spring and homodyne detection has been devised
to reduce quantum noise that limits the sensitivity of DECIGO, a space-based
gravitational wave antenna in the frequency band around 0.1 Hz for detection of
primordial gravitational waves. The reduction in the upper limit of energy
density from to
, as inferred from recent observations, necessitates
improved sensitivity in DECIGO to meet its primary science goals. To accurately
evaluate the effectiveness of this method, this paper considers a detection
mechanism that takes into account the influence of vacuum fluctuations on
homodyne detection. In addition, an advanced signal processing method is
devised to efficiently utilize signals from each photodetector, and design
parameters for this configuration are optimized for the quantum noise. Our
results show that this method is effective in reducing quantum noise, despite
the detrimental impact of vacuum fluctuations on its sensitivity.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Allelotypes of lung adenocarcinomas featuring ALK fusion demonstrate fewer onco- and suppressor gene changes
BACKGROUND: A subset of lung adenocarcinomas harboring an EML4-ALK fusion gene resulting in dominant oncogenic activity has emerged as a target for specific therapy. EML4-ALK fusion confers a characteristic histology and is detected more frequently in never or light smokers and younger patients. METHODS: To gain insights into etiology and carcinogenic mechanisms we conducted analyses to compare allelotypes of 35 ALK fusion-positive and 95 -negative tumours using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays and especially designed software which enabled precise global genomic profiling. RESULTS: Overall aberration numbers (gains + losses) of chromosomal alterations were 8.42 and 9.56 in tumours with and without ALK fusion, respectively, the difference not being statistically significant, although patterns of gain and loss were distinct. Interestingly, among selected genomic regions, oncogene-related examples such as 1p34.3(MYCL1), 7q11.2(EGFR), 7p21.1, 8q24.21(MYC), 16p13.3, 17q12(ERBB2) and 17q25.1 showed significantly less gain. Also, changes in tumour suppressor gene-related regions, such as 9p21.3 (CDKN2A) 9p23-24.1 (PTPRD), 13q14.2 (RB1), were significantly fewer in tumours with ALK fusion. CONCLUSION: Global genomic comparison with SNP arrays showed tumours with ALK fusion to have fewer alterations in oncogenes and suppressor genes despite a similar overall aberration frequency, suggesting very strong oncogenic potency of ALK activation by gene fusion
Transphosphatidylation by GIPC-PLD
Glycosylinositol phosphoceramide (GIPC) is the most abundant sphingolipid in plants and fungi. Recently, we detected GIPC-specific phospholipase D (GIPC-PLD) activity in plants. Here, we found that GIPC-PLD activity in young cabbage leaves catalyzes transphosphatidylation. The available alcohol for this reaction is a primary alcohol with a chain length below C4. Neither secondary alcohol, tertiary alcohol, choline, serine nor glycerol serves as an acceptor for transphosphatidylation of GIPC-PLD. We also found that cabbage GIPC-PLD prefers GIPC containing two sugars. Neither inositol phosphoceramide, mannosylinositol phosphoceramide nor GIPC with three sugar chains served as substrate. GIPC-PLD will become a useful catalyst for modification of polar head group of sphingophospholipid
Impact of HBV Infection on Outcomes of Direct-Acting Antiviral Therapy of Chronic Hepatitis C
Background: Most clinical trials of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection have excluded hepatitis B virus (HBV) coinfection, and little is known about the effects of DAA on chronic hepatitis C patients with HBV coinfection. Recent studies have reported that DAA therapy for HCV can also cause HBV reactivation in patients with HBV and HCV coinfection. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of DAA on sustained virologic response (SVR) and HBV reactivation in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Methods: Participants comprised 199 chronic hepatitis C patients who received DAA therapy (96 men, 103 women; mean age, 66.7 ± 12.0 years). Results: Twelve patients were coinfected with HCV and HBV. Sixty patients were HBV surface antigen negative but positive for hepatitis B core antibody and/or hepatitis B surface antibody, and one hundred and twenty-seven patients had not been exposed to HBV. Rates of SVR in HBV and HCV coinfected patients, HBV prior infection, and no exposure to HBV were 100, 95, and 97%, respectively. Significant differences were seen between each group. No case showed HBV reactivation. Conclusions: DAA treatments were effective in patients with HBV coinfection or HBV prior infection, as well as HCV monoinfection. As the number of cases was small, we still suggest caution regarding HBV reactivation in HCV and HBV coinfected patients undergoing treatment with DAA
Improvement of the target sensitivity in DECIGO by optimizing its parameters for quantum noise including the effect of diffraction loss
DECIGO is the future Japanese gravitational wave detector in outer space. We
previously set the default design parameters to provide a good target
sensitivity to detect the primordial gravitational waves (GWs). However, the
updated upper limit of the primordial GWs by the Planck observations motivated
us for further optimization of the target sensitivity. Previously, we had not
considered optical diffraction loss due to the very long cavity length. In this
paper, we optimize various DECIGO parameters by maximizing the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR), for the primordial GWs to quantum noise including the effects of
diffraction loss. We evaluated the power spectrum density for one cluster in
DECIGO utilizing the quantum noise of one differential Fabry-Perot
interferometer. Then we calculated the SNR by correlating two clusters in the
same position. We performed the optimization for two cases: the constant
mirror-thickness case and the constant mirror-mass case. As a result, we
obtained the SNR dependence on the mirror radius, which also determines various
DECIGO parameters. This result is the first step toward optimizing the DECIGO
design by considering the practical constraints on the mirror dimension and
implementing other noise sources.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure
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