Baseline neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio holds no prognostic value for esophageal and junctional adenocarcinoma in patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: Several studies have reported that neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) can predict survival in esophageal and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma, as it reflects systemic inflammation. Hence, we aimed to determine whether baseline NLR holds prognostic value for esophageal adenocarcinoma patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT) followed by surgery. METHODS: We studied the data of 139 patients that received nCT before undergoing esophagectomy with curative intent, all identified from a prospectively maintained database (1998-2016). Pretreatment hematology reports were used to calculate the baseline NLR. A receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-curve) was plotted to determine an optimal cutoff value. NLR quartiles were used to display possible differences between groups in relation to overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) using the method of Kaplan-Meier. Cox regression analysis was performed to assess the prognostic value of NLR. RESULTS: The median OS and DFS times were 46 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 19-166) and 30 months (IQR: 13-166], respectively, for the entire cohort. The ROC-curve showed that NLR has no discriminating power for survival status (area under the curve = 0.462) and therefore no optimal cutoff value could be determined. There were no statistically significant differences in median OS times for NLR quartiles: 65 (Q1), 32 (Q2), 45 (Q3), and 46 months (Q4) (P = 0.926). Similarly, DFS showed no difference between quartile groups, with median survival times of 27 (Q1), 19 (Q2), 36 (Q3), and 20 months (Q4) (P = 0.973). Age, pN, pM, and resection margin were independent prognostic factors for both OS and DFS. On the contrary, NLR was not associated with OS or DFS in univariable and multivariable analyses. CONCLUSION: Baseline NLR holds no prognostic value for esophageal and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma patients treated with nCT in this study, in contrast to other recently published papers. This result questions the validity of NLR as a reliable prognostic indicator and its clinical usefulness in these patients

Limit on Bs0B^0_s oscillation using a jet charge method

A lower limit is set on the B_{s}^{0} meson oscillation parameter \Delta m_{s} using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/antiparticle final state in decays of neutral B mesons. The initial state is determined by a jet charge technique using both sides of the event. A maximum likelihood method is used to set a lower limit of \, \Delta m_{s}. The 95\% confidence level lower limit on \Delta m_s ranges between 5.2 and 6.5(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} when the fraction of b quarks from Z^0 decays that form B_{s}^{0} mesons is varied from 8\% to 16\%. Assuming that the B_{s}^{0} fraction is 12\%, the lower limit would be \Delta m_{s} 6.1(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} at 95\% confidence level. For x_s = \Delta m_s \, \tau_{B_s}, this limit also gives x_s 8.8 using the B_{s}^{0} lifetime of \tau_{B_s} = 1.55 \pm 0.11~ps and shifting the central value of \tau_{B_s} down by 1\sigma

Measurement of the Bs0^0_s lifetime and production rate with Ds−l+^-_s l^+ combinations in Z decays

The lifetime of the \bs meson is measured in approximately 3 million hadronic Z decays accumulated using the ALEPH detector at LEP from 1991 to 1994. Seven different \ds decay modes were reconstructed and combined with an opposite sign lepton as evidence of semileptonic \bs decays. Two hundred and eight \dsl candidates satisfy selection criteria designed to ensure precise proper time reconstruction and yield a measured \bs lifetime of \mbox{\result .} Using a larger, less constrained sample of events, the product branching ratio is measured to be \mbox{\pbrresult

Limit on Bs0B^0_s oscillation using a jet charge method

A lower limit is set on the B_{s}^{0} meson oscillation parameter \Delta m_{s} using data collected from 1991 to 1994 by the ALEPH detector. Events with a high transverse momentum lepton and a reconstructed secondary vertex are used. The high transverse momentum leptons are produced mainly by b hadron decays, and the sign of the lepton indicates the particle/antiparticle final state in decays of neutral B mesons. The initial state is determined by a jet charge technique using both sides of the event. A maximum likelihood method is used to set a lower limit of \, \Delta m_{s}. The 95\% confidence level lower limit on \Delta m_s ranges between 5.2 and 6.5(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} when the fraction of b quarks from Z^0 decays that form B_{s}^{0} mesons is varied from 8\% to 16\%. Assuming that the B_{s}^{0} fraction is 12\%, the lower limit would be \Delta m_{s} 6.1(\hbar/c^{2})~ps^{-1} at 95\% confidence level. For x_s = \Delta m_s \, \tau_{B_s}, this limit also gives x_s 8.8 using the B_{s}^{0} lifetime of \tau_{B_s} = 1.55 \pm 0.11~ps and shifting the central value of \tau_{B_s} down by 1\sigma