Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes in 157 patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer: real-world evidence from a single-center retrospective study

BackgroundImmune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have changed the therapeutic options for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). In this real-world study, we analyzed the treatment patterns in patients with ES-SCLC and evaluated the efficacy of chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy as first-line therapy.MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed on patients with ES-SCLC who received treatment at China-Japan Friendship Hospital (Beijing, China) between August 1, 2020, and April 30, 2023. The treatment patterns appeared in the form of Sunburst Chart and Sankey diagram. The survival analyses were conducted by Kaplan-Meier curves.ResultsA total of 157 patients with ES-SCLC were retrospectively included. According to first-line therapy, patients were divided into the chemotherapy (CT) group (n=82) and chemo-immunotherapy (CIT) group (n=75). The median treatment lines were 2[1, 2] and cycles were 8[5, 12], respectively. 82 patients received the second line of therapy, followed by 37 for the third, 15 for the fourth, 11 for the fifth, and 5 for the sixth. Overall, the treatment patterns involved 11 options including 12 chemotherapy regimens, 11 ICIs, and 4 targeted agents. The second-line treatment pattern had the most options (9) and regimens (43). In the first 3 lines, chemotherapy was the largest proportion of treatment options. The addition of ICIs prolonged progression-free survival from 6.77 (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.00-7.87) to 7.33 (95% CI, 6.03-9.80) months (hazard ratio [HR]=0.67, 95% CI, 0.47-0.95; P=0.025), overall survival from 12.97 (10.90-23.3) to 14.33 (12.67-NA) months without statistically significant difference (HR=0.86, 95% CI, 0.55-1.34; P=0.505).ConclusionThe treatment options of patients with ES-SCLC are more diversified. Combination therapy is the current trend, where chemotherapy is the cornerstone. Meanwhile, ICIs participate in almost all lines of treatment. However, the clinical efficacy remains barely satisfactory. We are urgently expecting more breakthrough therapies except immunology will be applied in the clinic

Shape-related optical and catalytic properties of wurtzite-type CoO nanoplates and nanorods

National Basic Research Program of China [2012CB933103]; National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China [50825101]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [51171157, 51171158]In this paper, we report the anisotropic optical and catalytic properties of wurtzite-type hexagonal CoO (h-CoO) nanocrystals, an unusual nanosized indirect semiconductor material. h-CoO nanoplates and nanorods with a divided morphology have been synthesized via facile solution methods. The employment of flash-heating and surfactant tri-n-octylphosphine favors the formation of plate-like morphology, whereas the utilization of cobalt stearate as a precursor is critical for the synthesis of nanorods. Structural analyses indicate that the basal plane of the nanoplates is (001) face and the growth direction of the nanorods is along the c axis. Moreover, the UV-vis absorption spectra, the corresponding energy gap and the catalytic properties are found to vary with the crystal shape and the dimensions of the as-prepared h-CoO nanocrystals. Furthermore, remarkable catalytic activities for H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of alkaline NaBH4 solutions have been observed for the as-prepared h-CoO nanocrystals. The calculated Arrhenius activation energies show a decreasing trend with increasing extension degree along the direction, which is in agreement with the variation of the charge-transfer energy gap. Finally the maximum hydrogen generation rate of the h-CoO nanoplates exceeds most of the reported values of transition metal or noble metal containing catalysts performing in the same reaction system, which makes them a low-cost alternative to commonly used noble metal catalysts in H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of borohydrides, and might find potential applications in the field of green energy

A facile approach to fabrication of well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres

A novel, facile and template-free approach was developed for the fabrication of amorphous zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres and crystalline well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres. In this approach, amorphous zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres were prepared through a simple chemical reaction and with room temperature ageing at nickel nitrate solution. The zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres have an average size of about 1.4 μm. The average thickness of the shell is about 300 nm. The content of Ni in the zinc-nickel citrate can be simply adjusted by changing the ageing time. The well-dispersed NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres can be prepared via the perfect morphology inheritance of the zinc-nickel citrate hollow microspheres, by calcination at 500 °C for 2 h. The optical absorption of the samples can extend into the visible region after the loading of NiO. The NiO-ZnO composite hollow microspheres with the high content of NiO exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of different organic dyes including Rhodamine-B, methylene blue and methyl orange under UV irradiation, which might be ascribed to their highest separation efficiency of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. In addition, these NiO-ZnO composite photocatalysts can be used repeatedly without a significant decrease of the photocatalytic activity under UV irradiation. ? 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Au-ZnO hybrid nanoflowers, nanomultipods and nanopyramids: one-pot reaction synthesis and photocatalytic properties

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [2011121003]; National Basic Research Program of China [2012CB933103]; National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China [50825101]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [51171157, 51171158]The preparation of noble metal-semiconductor hybrid nanocrystals with controlled morphologies has received intensive interest in recent years. In this study, facile one-pot reactions have been developed for the synthesis of Au-ZnO hybrid nanocrystals with different interesting morphologies, including petal-like and urchin-like nanoflowers, nanomultipods and nanopyramids. In the synthesis strategy, oleylamine-containing solution serves as the reaction medium, and the in situ generated Au seeds play an important role in the subsequently induced growth of ZnO nanocrystals. With the aid of several surfactants, hybrid nanocrystals with different morphologies that have considerable influences on their optical and photocatalytic activities are readily achieved. Through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements, an observed common orientation relationship between ZnO and Au is that ZnO nanocrystals prefer to grow with their polar {001} facets on the {111} facets of Au nanocrystals, and well-defined interfaces are evident. Surface plasmon resonance bands of Au with different positions are observed in the UV-vis spectra, and the UV and visible emissions of ZnO are found to be dramatically reduced. Finally, the as-prepared Au-ZnO nanocrystals exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity for the photodegradation of rhodamine B compared with pure ZnO nanocrystals. The Au-ZnO hybrid nanopyramids show the highest catalytic efficiency, which is correlated with the exposed crystal facets, crystallinity and the formation of hybrid nanostructures. The as-prepared Au-ZnO hybrid nanocrystals are expected to find diverse potential applications in the fields such as photocatalysis, solar energy conversion, sensing and biological detection

Injection synthesis of Ni-Cu@Au-Cu nanowires with tunable magnetic and plasmonic properties

National Basic Research Program of China [2012CB933103]; National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China [50825101]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [51171157, 51171158]A facile nonaqueous injection method has been developed for the construction of one-dimensional nanostructure consisting of a magnetic alloy (Ni-Cu) core and a plasmonic alloy (Au-Cu) shell. The obtained Ni-Cu@Au-Cu nanowires exhibit tunable optical and magnetic properties

Estimating Surface Downward Shortwave Radiation over China Based on the Gradient Boosting Decision Tree Method

Downward shortwave radiation (DSR) is an essential parameter in the terrestrial radiation budget and a necessary input for models of land-surface processes. Although several radiation products using satellite observations have been released, coarse spatial resolution and low accuracy limited their application. It is important to develop robust and accurate retrieval methods with higher spatial resolution. Machine learning methods may be powerful candidates for estimating the DSR from remotely sensed data because of their ability to perform adaptive, nonlinear data fitting. In this study, the gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT) was employed to retrieve DSR measurements with the ground observation data in China collected from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Meteorological Information Center and the satellite observations from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) at a spatial resolution of 5 km. The validation results of the DSR estimates based on the GBRT method in China at a daily time scale for clear sky conditions show an R2 value of 0.82 and a root mean square error (RMSE) value of 27.71 W·m−2 (38.38%). These values are 0.64 and 42.97 W·m−2 (34.57%), respectively, for cloudy sky conditions. The monthly DSR estimates were also evaluated using ground measurements. The monthly DSR estimates have an overall R2 value of 0.92 and an RMSE of 15.40 W·m−2 (12.93%). Comparison of the DSR estimates with the reanalyzed and retrieved DSR measurements from satellite observations showed that the estimated DSR is reasonably accurate but has a higher spatial resolution. Moreover, the proposed GBRT method has good scalability and is easy to apply to other parameter inversion problems by changing the parameters and training data

CoO nanocrystals as a highly active catalyst for the generation of hydrogen from hydrolysis of sodium borohydride

We report the excellent catalytic performance of CoO nanocrystals on the catalytic hydrolysis of alkaline NaBH4 solutions. COO nanocrystals with octahedral and near-spherical shapes are synthesized using a facile chemical solution method that employed cobalt acetate tetrahydrate as metal precursor in the presence of oleylamine. The octahedral CoO nanocrystals typically have a size of 40-50 nm, while the near-spherical nanocrystals have a size varying from 8 to 13 nm. Both of them have a face centered cubic (fcc) crystalline phase. Catalytic tests show that the as-synthesized CoO nanocrystals exhibit very high activities for the H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of alkaline NaBH4 solutions. The maximum hydrogen generation rate of the as-synthesized CoO nanocrystals exceeds most reported values of transition metal or noble metal contained catalysts performed in alkaline NaBH4 solutions. The influences of shape on the catalytic behaviors of as-synthesized COO nanocrystals are also compared and analyzed. The results presented in this study indicate that CoO nanocrystals are a promising candidate to replace noble metal catalysts in the H-2 generation from the hydrolysis of borohydrides. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China [50825101]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [2011121003

Quality appraisal of clinical practice guidelines addressing massage interventions using the AGREE II instrument

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to systematically evaluate the methodological quality of massage-related clinical practice guidelines (CPGs)/consensus on massage using the Appraisal of Guidelines Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument and to summarize the current status of recommendations in the CPGs. Methods The Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Data, China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), PubMed, Embase, and guideline websites (such as the Chinese Medical Ace Base, the China Association of Chinese Medicine, the World Health Organization, Guideline International Network, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) were searched from inception to October 31, 2022. In addition, the reference lists of relevant studies were reviewed to identify domestic and overseas massage CPGs/consensus. The search terms adopted a combination of subject words and free words, mainly including traditional Chinese medicine, complementary therapies, Tuina, massage, manipulation, chiropractic/osteopathic, spinal, acupressure, guideline, and consensus. Two researchers independently completed the eligible records and extracted the data. Before the formal research, calibrations were performed twice on AGREE II, and all reviewers completed the pilot test three times until they understood and reached an agreement on the assessment items. Three researchers appraised the methodological quality of the included guidelines using the AGREE II instrument and calculated the overall intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of agreement. Results The evaluation results showed that among the 49 eligible CPGs/consensus, 4 (8.2%) CPGs/consensus were considered “recommended”, 15 (30.6%) CPGs/consensus were considered “recommended with modifications”, and 30 (61.2%) CPGs/consensus were considered “not recommended”, while the consensus was considered “not recommended”. Generally, the scores in the six domains of the guidelines were all higher than the consensus. Evaluation results for the overall quality of 36 CPGs showed that 4 (11%) were “good quality”, 15 (42%) were “sufficient quality” and 17 (47%) were “lower quality”. The AGREE II quality scores of domains ranged from 0.30 to 0.75 ([ICC = 0.993, 95% CI (0.992, 0.995)]). The domain of scope and purpose (domain 1), with a median score of 0.75 (0.52~0.91), performed best in the guidelines with AGREE II, and stakeholder involvement (domain 2) [median 0.39 (0.31~0.56)] and application (domain 5) [median 0.30 (0.17~0.47] obtained lower scores. The consensus score of domain 1 was better at 26.0 (21.6~44.8), followed by rigor of development (domain 3) with a score of 18.0 (10.0~28.9). A total of 119 massage-related recommendations were extracted from 49 guidelines/consensuses, including “in favor” (102, 85.7%), “against” (9, 7.6%), and “did not make recommendations” (8, 6.7%). Conclusion The overall quality of the included guidelines was low, and most of the guidelines were not “recommended”. In future guideline updates, the existing evidence should be used, the professional composition of members of the expert group should be enriched, and patients’ values and preferences should be fully considered. It is necessary to clearly propose recognizable recommendations and strengthen the rigor and standardization of guideline formulation. Thus, clear standard guidelines can be formulated to better guide clinical practice

Magnetic metal phosphide nanorods as effective hydrogen-evolution electrocatalysts

© 2014 Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. All rights reserved. Efficient and economical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water splitting holds a bright prospect for clean energy. Replacement of expensive Pt-based catalysts with earth-abundant catalysts is beneficial for this field. In this study, nanoscale magnetic metal phosphides including Co2P, Co1.33Ni0.67P and Ni2P nanorods are synthesized by a facile solution method. Their HER activities and stabilities on glassy carbon and Ti electrodes are investigated. The Co2P nanorods deposited on glassy carbon electrodes are found to show higher activity and better reversibility than the Co1.33Ni0.67P and Ni2P counterparts. Nevertheless, the Co1.33Ni0.67P and Ni2P samples on Ti electrodes gain a significant activity promotion after annealing in H2/Ar atmosphere. Investigation of the Tafel curves shows that the Co2P nanorods on glassy carbon have the lowest Tafel slope while their exchange current density on Ti electrode exhibits a high value which is comparable to that of Pt electrode. Furthermore, the cyclic voltammetric tests show that the reversibility of annealed Co2P on Ti electrode is the best, which emphasizes the superiority of Co species in catalyzing HER reaction. Finally, the three magnetic metal phosphide catalysts are found to exhibit good stabilities in acidic conditions according to the galvanostatic testing results

Synthesis of amorphous ZnSnO3-C hollow microcubes as advanced anode materials for lithium ion batteries

Amorphous ZnSnO3-C hollow microcubes have been produced by calcination of the pre-synthesized ZnSn(OH)6 hollow microcubes in argon, followed by the surface decoration of carbon. The calcination temperature plays an important role in the phase and morphology of the obtained products. ZnSnO3-C hollow microcubes have an average edge length of about 1.0 μm with the shell thickness of approximate 145 nm. When adopted as the anode materials for lithium ion batteries, amorphous ZnSnO3-C hollow microcubes manifest greatly enhanced electrochemical properties compared to amorphous ZnSnO3 hollow and solid counterparts. After 50th cycles, a high reversible capacity of 703 mA h g-1 can be obtained for amorphous ZnSnO3-C hollow microcubes at the current density of 100 mA g-1. The superior lithium storage properties of ZnSnO3-C are due to its unique hollow structure with large specific surface area, the modification of carbon and the amorphous characteristic. ? 2014 Elsevier Ltd