We treated two patients with severe respiratory failure due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Case 1 was a 73-year-old woman, and Case 2 was a 65-year-old-man. Neither of them had a history of autoimmune disease. Chest computed tomography scans before the antiviral therapy showed bilateral multiple patchy ground-glass opacities (GGO) consistent with COVID-19 pneumonia. The GGO regressed over the course of the antiviral treatment; however, new non-segmental patchy consolidations emerged, which resembled those of interstitial lung disease (ILD), specifically collagen vascular disease-associated ILD. We tested the patients' sera for autoantibodies and discovered that both patients had high anti-SSA/Ro antibody titers. In Case 1, the patient recovered with antiviral therapy alone. However, in Case 2, the patient did not improve with antiviral therapy alone but responded well to corticosteroid therapy (methylprednisolone) and made a full recovery. The relationship between some immunological responses and COVID-19 pneumonia exacerbation has been discussed previously; our discovery of the elevation of anti-SSA/Ro antibodies suggests a contribution from autoimmunity functions of the immune system. Although it is unclear whether the elevation of anti-SSA/Ro antibodies was a cause or an outcome of aggravated COVID-19 pneumonia, we hypothesize that both patients developed aggravated the COVID-19 pneumonia due to an autoimmune response. In COVID-19 lung injury, there may be a presence of autoimmunity factors in addition to the known effects of cytokine storms. In patients with COVID-19, a high level of anti-SSA/Ro52 antibodies may be a surrogate marker of pneumonia severity and poor prognosis. Keywords Anti-SSA/Ro antibodies. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Corticosteroid. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) * Hiroyuki Fujii

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Although previous studies suggest that cancer cachexia is a poor prognostic factor for immune checkpoint inhibitor monotherapy, the impact of cancer cachexia on chemoimmunotherapy is unclear. We investigated the impact of cancer cachexia on the therapeutic outcomes of chemoimmunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We retrospectively analyzed patients' medical records with NSCLC who received chemoimmunotherapy in 12 institutions in Japan between January and November 2019. We defined cancer cachexia as weight loss exceeding 5% of the total body weight or a body mass index of < 20 kg/m 2 and weight loss of more than 2% of the total body weight within 6 months before chemoimmunotherapy initiation, with laboratory results exceeding reference values. This study enrolled 235 patients with NSCLC, among whom 196 were eligible for analysis, and 50 (25.5%) met the criteria for cachexia diagnosis. Patients with cancer cachexia had a significantly higher frequency of a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of ≥ 50% (48%, p = .01) and shorter progression-free survival (PFS; logrank test: p = .04) than patients without cachexia. There was no significant difference in overall survival (OS) between the cachexia and no-cachexia groups (log-rank test: p = .14). In the PD-L1 ≥ 50% population, there was no significant difference in PFS and OS (log-rank test: p = .19 and p = .79, respectively) between patients with NSCLC in the cachexia or no-cachexia groups. Cancer cachexia might be a poor prognostic factor in patients with NSCLC receiving chemoimmunotherapy.

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Combination therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors and cytotoxic chemotherapies (chemoimmunotherapy) is associated with significantly better survival outcomes than cytotoxic chemotherapies alone in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, there are no prognostic markers for chemoimmunotherapy. The prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and lung immune prognostic index (LIPI) are prognostic biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) monotherapy or cytotoxic chemotherapies. Thus, we aimed to examine whether these factors could also be prognostic markers for chemoimmunotherapy. We retrospectively examined 237 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with chemoimmunotherapy. In the total group, the median overall survival (OS) was not reached, and the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 8.6 months. Multivariate analysis of OS and PFS revealed significant differences based on PNI and LIPI. Programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) was also significantly associated with OS and PFS. PNI and a PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) of <50% and poor LIPI (regardless of PD-L1 TPS) were associated with poor prognosis. PNI and LIPI predicted survival outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC treated with chemoimmunotherapy, especially in patients with PD-L1 TPS <50%. For patients in this poor category, chemoimmunotherapy may result in a worse prognosis than expected.