Efficacy of subsequent treatments in patients with hormone-positive advanced breast cancer who had disease progression under CDK 4/6 inhibitor therapy

Background: There is no standard treatment recommended at category 1 level in international guidelines for subsequent therapy after cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor (CDK4/6) based therapy. We aimed to evaluate which subsequent treatment oncologists prefer in patients with disease progression under CDKi. In addition, we aimed to show the effectiveness of systemic treatments after CDKi and whether there is a survival difference between hormonal treatments (monotherapy vs. mTOR-based). Methods: A total of 609 patients from 53 centers were included in the study. Progression-free-survivals (PFS) of subsequent treatments (chemotherapy (CT, n:434) or endocrine therapy (ET, n:175)) after CDKi were calculated. Patients were evaluated in three groups as those who received CDKi in first-line (group A, n:202), second-line (group B, n: 153) and ≥ 3rd-line (group C, n: 254). PFS was compared according to the use of ET and CT. In addition, ET was compared as monotherapy versus everolimus-based combination therapy. Results: The median duration of CDKi in the ET arms of Group A, B, and C was 17.0, 11.0, and 8.5 months in respectively; it was 9.0, 7.0, and 5.0 months in the CT arm. Median PFS after CDKi was 9.5 (5.0–14.0) months in the ET arm of group A, and 5.3 (3.9–6.8) months in the CT arm (p = 0.073). It was 6.7 (5.8–7.7) months in the ET arm of group B, and 5.7 (4.6–6.7) months in the CT arm (p = 0.311). It was 5.3 (2.5–8.0) months in the ET arm of group C and 4.0 (3.5–4.6) months in the CT arm (p = 0.434). Patients who received ET after CDKi were compared as those who received everolimus-based combination therapy versus those who received monotherapy ET: the median PFS in group A, B, and C was 11.0 vs. 5.9 (p = 0.047), 6.7 vs. 5.0 (p = 0.164), 6.7 vs. 3.9 (p = 0.763) months. Conclusion: Physicians preferred CT rather than ET in patients with early progression under CDKi. It has been shown that subsequent ET after CDKi can be as effective as CT. It was also observed that better PFS could be achieved with the subsequent everolimus-based treatments after first-line CDKi compared to monotherapy ET.Breast Cancer Consortiu

First-line treatment of patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancer

Fluoropyrimidine+cisplatin/oxaliplatin+trastuzumab therapy is recommended for the first-line treatment of HER2-positive metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma. However, there is no comprehensive study on which platinum-based treatment should be preferred. This study aimed to compare the treatment response and survival characteristics of patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer who received fluorouracil, oxaliplatin, and leucovorin (mFOLFOX)+trastuzumab or cisplatin and fluorouracil (CF)+trastuzumab as first-line therapy. It was a multicenter, retrospective study of the Turkish Oncology Group, which included 243 patients from 21 oncology centers. There were 113 patients in the mFOLFOX+trastuzumab arm and 130 patients in the CF+trastuzumab arm. The median age was 62 years in the mFOLFOX+trastuzumab arm and 61 years in the CF+trastuzumab arm (P = 0.495). 81.4% of patients in the mFOLFOX+trastuzumab arm and 83.1% in the CF+trastuzumab arm had gastric tumor localization (P = 0.735). The median progression-free survival (PFS) was significantly higher in the mFOLFOX+trastuzumab arm (9.4 months vs. 7.3 months, P = 0.024). The median overall survival (OS) was similar in both groups (18.4 months vs. 15.1 months, P = 0.640). Maintenance trastuzumab was continued after chemotherapy in 101 patients. In this subgroup, the median OS was 23.3 months and the median PFS was 13.3 months. In conclusion, mFOLFOX+trastuzumab is similar to CF+trastuzumab in terms of the median OS, but it is more effective in terms of the median PFS in the first-line treatment of HER2-positive metastatic gastric and GEJ cancer. The choice of treatment should be made by considering the prominent toxicity findings of the chemotherapy regimens

Analysis of five-hole probe calibration parameters

Five-hole pressure probes are used to measure total and static pressure, magnitude and angles of flow velocity vector. Calibration procedure is of high importance to obtain ac- curate results. Different approaches are proposed in literature to obtain calibration coefficients and data reduction algorithm. In this paper, a significance analysis is conducted for the parameters of the third-order multiple regression model used in data reduction process. A new multi regression curve fitting is applied with the most significant parameters. The new reduced model gives more accurate results compared to the first-order regression whereas extensive data acquisition process of the third-order model is eliminated with reduced parameters

Effects of different filler types on decay resistance and thermal, physical, and mechanical properties of recycled high-density polyethylene composites

In this study, flexural properties, impact strength, thermal performance, water absorption, biological durability, and morphology of wood-plastic composites (WPCs) filled with different filler types were investigated. Six different formulations of WPCs were fabricated from mixtures of carpenter waste and recycled high-density polyethylene (R-HDPE). The carpenter waste was derived from wood and particle board wastes, and R-HDPE was used as the polymer matrix, with and without addition of maleic anhydrite grafted polyethylene (MAPE). All formulations were compression moulded in a hot press for 3 min at 170 degrees C. Investigations on the compression moulded specimens revealed that water absorption values in the particleboard waste flour specimens were lower than in the wood-waste flour WPCs. However, the wood-waste flourfilled composites exhibited higher mechanical property values than the particleboard waste flour WPCs. Statistically, only the wood-waste flour-filled composites with MAPE were significantly different. The use of MAPE (3 wt%) had a positive effect on the water absorption, crystallinity degree, and flexural properties of the WPCs. In addition, the peak temperatures of the composites did not show any variation, while thermal decomposition of the composites showed minor variations under the thermogravimetric analysis. Furthermore, the decay resistance of the composites improved with the use of particleboard waste flour. The obtained results demonstrate that particleboard waste flour, such as wood-waste flour, is potentially suitable as a raw material in WPCs.This study was supported by BAP (Directorate of Scientific Research Projects of Artvin Coruh University) under Grant Nos 2012.F40.02.029 and 2014.F11.02.02