Objective The objective of this study was to assess the psychological health status of patients diagnosed with cancer in Iraq during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study aim was to measure the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among patients diagnosed with cancer. Secondary aims were to assess the association between depression, anxiety, and stress with sociodemographic characteristics, cancer‐specific characteristics, patients' experience in healthcare visit, risk perception towards COVID‐19, and health concern during the outbreak. Methods A cross‐sectional study was conducted between September 1, 2020 and December 1, 2020 at an Oncology clinic in Baghdad. Included in the study were two hundred patients diagnosed with cancer. Data collected included: demographic variables (age, gender, residential location, marital status, education, employment status), clinical characteristics and cancer‐specific parameters (duration since cancer diagnosis, cancer type, treatment duration, clinic visits frequency), experience during the pandemic (skipping or postponing treatment or periodical tests, suffering from new body pain, fear of acquiring the infection, fear of health deterioration), as well as psychological health status (depression, anxiety, stress). Pain, risk perception towards COVID‐19, and health concern were measured using categorical Likert scale with responses being no, sometimes, and often. The psychological health status was measured by the “Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale” (DASS‐21). Cut‐off scores of the DASS‐21 greater than 9, 7, and 14 represent a positive screen of depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. Results The prevalence of patients who screened positive for depression was 22.0%, anxiety 22.0%, and stress 13.5%. The prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress were significantly more in those who had university or higher education (34.3%, p ‐value <0.0001; 32.3%, p ‐value <0.0001; 19.2%, p ‐value = 0.02 respectively). Those were four times more likely to have depression and two times more likely to have anxiety than participants who had school education (OR = 4.40 CI [1.98–9.77], p ‐value <0.0001; OR = 2.55 CI [1.15–5.65], p ‐value = 0.02, respectively). The prevalence of anxiety was significantly the highest in the age group 16–39 years (40.9%) compared to 22.3% in the age group 40–64 years and 10.3% in the group ≥65 years ( p ‐value = 0.02). Patients ≥65 years of age were less likely to develop anxiety compared to younger patients (OR = 0.44 CI [0.22–0.89], p ‐value = 0.02). As for the patients' experience in healthcare visit, 66 patients (33.0%) skipped or postponed their treatment or tests due to the outbreak. Around (8%) sometimes suffered from new body pain. Those who sometimes suffered from...
7676 Background: Overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGF-R) in NSCLC-tumors is linked to poor prognosis and shorter overall survival. PTK/ZK (PTK/ZK) is a novel, oral, anti-angiogenic compound blocking all currently known VEGF receptors (VEGF-R1–3). DCE-MRI measures early changes in tumour-associated vasculature in response to treatment and has been successfully used as a biomarker for biological activity of PTK/ZK in liver metastases from colorectal cancer. Methods: This is a prospective, multi- centre, phase-II study of PTK/ZK in pretreated patients with advanced stage NSCLC. 54 patients (pts) received 1,250 mg PTK/ZK once daily (qd), followed by 58 patients receiving 1,250 mg (500 am + 750 mg pm) PTK/ZK twice daily (bid). Response evaluation was based on RECIST. Disease stabilization of at least 12 weeks based on CT/MRI-imaging was defined as clinically relevant drug activity. DCE-MRI was performed 2- 4 hours after PTK/ZK administration, on day 2 and at day 28. Contrast enhancement for the whole tumour was assessed by calculating the transfer constant (Ktrans) using a two-compartment model. Results: DCE-MRI was performed successfully in 35 pts in the qd cohort on day 2 and 29 pts in the qd cohort at day 28. There was a statistically significant mean reduction in Ktrans at day 2 of 35.2 % (p<0.0001, N=35, paired ‘t’ test) and at Day 28 of 38.1% (p<0.0001, N=29). 32 pts with day 2 DCE- MRI were evaluable for response assessment with 10 (31%) achieving SD at 12 weeks and 22 (69%) with progressive disease (PD). Both the SD group and the PD group had significant mean reductions in Ktrans at day 2 (39.4% and 37.1%, respectively). However, the difference between SD and PD was not statistically significant. Data for the bid cohort will be presented at the meeting. Conclusions: PTK/ZK causes statistically significant reduction in tumour vascular parameters of lung tumours. Ktrans has previously been shown to correlate with clinical outcome. However, for the qd cohort, no correlation could be demonstrated. This may be due to the limitation of the sample size as well as the heterogeneity of the targeted lesions selected for this study. [Table: see text]
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