Sleep Disturbances in Patients With Malignancy and Non-Malignancy

Objective: Aim of the study was to evaluate sleep quality in a small sample of patients with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) comparing them with the patients under treatment in oncology department. Method: Forty-eight patients were included in the study, 22 of them were recruited from the oncology department (oncology patients: OnPs) and 26 from the gastroenterology department (gastroenterology patients: GEPs) at a university hospital. By senior psychology students, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index were administered to the patients. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding anxiety and depression scores of the patients and their total sleep quality scores. Nevertheless, it has been found that GEPs had higher anxiety scores than OnPs. Conclusion: The regression analysis demonstrated that sleep quality scores are determined only by anxiety scores and that being an oncology or gastroenterology patients, being at a certain age, or gender have no effect on total sleep quality scores. [Med-Science 2012; 1(4.000): 315-22

Sleep Disturbances in Patients with Malignancy and Non-Malignancy

Abstrac

The effectiveness and safety of neoadjuvant pertuzumab and trastuzumab in women with locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive breast cancer: Turkish Oncology Group study

In our study, we aimed to evaluate the pathological response rates and side effect profile of adding pertuzumab to the treatment of HER2+ locally advanced, inflammatory, or early-stage breast cancer. This study was conducted by the Turkish Oncology Group (TOG) with data collected from 32 centers. Our study was multicentric, and a total of 364 patients were included. The median age of the patients was 49 years (18-85 years). Two hundred fifteen (60%) of the cases were hormone receptor/HER2+ positive(ER+ or PR+, or both), and 149 (40%) of them were HER2-rich (ER and PR negative). The number of complete responses was 124 (54%) in the docetaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm and 102 (45%) in the paclitaxel+trastuzumab+pertuzumab arm, and there was no difference between the groups in terms of complete response. In 226 (62%) patients with complete response, a significant correlation was found with DCIS, tumor focality, removed lymph node, and ER status P < 0.05. Anemia, nausea, vomiting, myalgia, alopecia, and mucosal inflammation were significantly higher in the docetaxel arm, P < 0.05. In our study, no statistical difference was found between the before-after echocardiography values. DCIS positivity in biopsy before neoadjuvant chemotherapy, tumor focality; the number of lymph nodes removed and ER status were found to be associated with pCR. In conclusion, we think that studies evaluating pCR-related clinicopathological variables and radiological imaging features will play a critical role in the development of nonsurgical treatment approaches

Coronaphobia: A barrier to ongoing cancer treatment?

Introduction Increased stress levels caused by the pandemic might cause delays in cancer treatment. We conducted a survey among cancer patients undergoing treatment to evaluate their psychological wellbeing and treatment adherence during Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. Material and Methods Patients receiving active chemotherapy at a private oncology center between January and May 2021 were included. Healthy volunteers were employees of a district health directorate with no history of cancer or chronic disease. Treatment adherence was described as compliant if the prescribed treatment was received within a week and the information was gained from patient charts. Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) and COVID-19 phobia scale (CP19-S) were administered to participants. Results 402 participants were included; 193 (48%) were cancer patients. The mean age of the participants was 44 years old and 68% of the participants were female. All participants' CP19-S mean score was 47.9. Patient group had significantly lower CP19-S (p = 0.006). Chronic disease and history of a shocking event were the factors associated with CP19-S. All participants reporting hospital anxiety were found to have significantly higher COVID-19 phobia levels (p < 0.05). Patients' mean HADS-anxiety score was significantly higher (7.3 vs. 6.5, p = 0.027). COVID-19 phobia was an independent factor increasing the level of anxiety and depression in both groups. Adherence to treatment was 100%. Conclusion The pandemic increased levels of anxiety, however, cancer treatment continued to be a priority in patients' lives. Strategies should be developed to support oncology patients cope with the pandemic and increase their courage to avoid treatment delays

Pertuzumab, trastuzumab and taxane combination for visceral organ metastatic patients: Real life practice results

...European Society for Medical Oncology; Japanese Society of Medical Oncolog

Crizotinib efficacy in alk-positive advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer patients: A real-world experience from Turkey

WOS: 000454014501235Background: Increasing evidence leads to a ratiocination that genetic heterogeneity of the lung adenocarcinoma patients with sensitive EGFR mutations may impact clinical responses and outcomes to EGFR-TKIs. Method: We performed targeted NGS with a gene panel covering 416 cancer-related genes to profile genetic characteristics of 69 lung adenocarcinoma patients with activating EGFR mutations and assessed the contribution of targeted NGS to exploration of genetic heterogeneity of such cohort. Result: We detected total 200 actionable genetic alterations (mean 2.9 variations per patient, range: 1-7 variations) in tumor DNA and 140 actionable genetic alterations (mean 2.0 variations per patient, range: 0-5 variations) in matched plasma ctDNA, respectively. The concurrent genes with the highest mutation rate were TP53 (observed in 72.5% patients), other uncommon EGFR mutations (observed in 21.7% patients), EGFR amplification (observed in 20.3% patients), RB1 (observed in 10.1% patients), PIK3CA (observed in 7.2% patients), and MYC (observed in 5.8% patients). NGS provides EGFR mutation detection in plasma with a test sensitivity of 88.2% and specificity of 100.0%

The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in resected stage I non - small cell lung cancer: A Turkish Oncology Group Study

Purpose: The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for tumors smaller than 4 cm is not clear. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of adjuvant platin-based chemotherapy in high-risk stage I patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Efficacy of Palbociclib and Endocrine Treatment in Heavily Pretreated Hormone Receptor-positive/HER2-negative Advanced Breast Cancer: Retrospective Multicenter Trial

Background: The synthesis of CDK4/6 inhibitors with endocrine treatment in two series of treatment has been widely accepted as the standard for patients with estrogen receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer. In spite of this, the activity of CDK4/6 inhibitors in patients with metastatic breast cancer who have progressed despite receiving multiple lines of treatment is not well understood

Atezolizumab combined with chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer: A real-life data of the Turkish Oncology Group

Purpose Atezolizumab has been shown to be effective and safe in randomized trial in the first-line treatment of extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (SCLC). However, there are limited real-life data on atezolizumab. In this study, we aimed to determine the real-life efficacy and safety of atezolizumab combined with chemotherapy in the first-line treatment of extensive-stage SCLC. Methods This trial is a retrospective multicenter study of the Turkish Oncology Group, which included extensive-stage SCLC patients who received atezolizumab combined with chemotherapy in a first-line treatment. The characteristics of the patients, treatment and response rates, and PFS and OS are presented. Factors associated with PFS and OS were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis. Results A total of 213 patients at the 30 oncology centers were included. The median number of chemotherapy cycle was 5 (1-8) and atezolizumab cycle was 7 (1-32). After median 11.9 months of follow-up, median PFS and OS was 6.8 months (95%CI 5.7-7.8), and 11.9 months (95%CI 11-12.7), respectively. The ORR was 61.9%. ECOG-PS (p = 0.002) and number of metastatic sites (p = 0.001) were associated with PFS and pack-year of smoking (p = 0.05), while ECOG-PS (p = 0.03) and number of metastatic sites (p = 0.001) were associated with OS. Hematological side effects were common and toxicities were manageable. Conclusion This real-life data confirm the efficacy and safety of atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy in first-line treatment of extensive-stage SCLC