2652 Background: Gut microbiome dysbiosis impairs systemic immune responses and recent evidence suggests its critical role in patients (pts) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) and antibiotics (ATB) may alter the microbiome and their impact on clinical outcomes and toxicities requires further investigation. Methods: This retrospective cohort included consecutive metastatic cancer pts treated with ICI with palliative intent. We reviewed pts' records, concomitant medication and toxicities graded by CTCAE 4.0. Pts with PPI or ATB exposure were analyzed according to previous use (pPPI and pATB, ≤60 days to ICI) and concomitant use (cPPI and cATB). We estimated median overall survival (mOS) and progression free survival (PFS) by Kaplan–Meier and used a Cox proportional-hazards model to adjust for differences in baseline characteristics. Toxicities and ATB/PPI interaction was calculated using Pearson Chi-square method. Results: We enrolled 216 pts with a median age of 59 years, mostly ECOG-PS 0 (34%) or 1 (58%). ICI employed were mostly anti-PD-1 (60.2%), anti-CTLA-4 (16.2%) and anti-PD-L1 (12.5%). Most frequent primary tumor sites were lung n = 39 (18.1%), gastrointestinal n = 34 (15.7%) and melanoma n = 33 (15.2%). Half of the pts (108) received ATB and 114 (52.8%) PPI. Compared to control, pPPI group n = 57 (26.4%) had shorter mOS (11.6m vs 19.7m, p < 0.001) and PFS (2.8m vs 8.5m, p < 0.001), but no statistically significant difference in toxicities grade ≥3 and/or leading to ICI discontinuation (36% vs 29.1%; p = 0.29). cPPI n = 100 (46.3%) depicted a negative impact on mOS (12.1m vs 17.0m; p = 0.01), PFS (4.3m vs 7.1m; p = 0.04) and augmented toxicities (42% vs 19%; p < 0.001). pATB n = 34 (15.7%) had shorter OS (6.9m vs 19.3m, p < 0.001) and PFS (3.2 vs 7.2m, p = 0.005) and higher incidence of toxicities (45.9% vs 28.1%; p = 0.04 ). cATB use n = 92 (42.6%) did not impact OS (12.1m vs 15.6m; p = 0.32) or PFS (5.5m vs 5.9m; p = 0.82), but had a higher incidence of toxicities: 37% vs. 24.2% (p = 0.05). Multivariate analyses confirmed that pATB therapy and pPPI respectively remained as independent prognostic variables associated with OS (HR 2.39; 95% CI, 1.60-3.59; P <.001 and HR 1.73; 95% CI 1.23-2.44; P = 0.002) and PFS (HR 1.72; 95% CI, 1.14-2.61; P = 0.01 and HR 2.36; 95% CI 1.67 - 3.34; P < 0.001) adjusted by performance status, age and line of treatment. Conclusions: These data suggest that concomitant use of PPI and ATB is associated with increased toxicities in ICI treated pts. pPPI and pATB can negatively impact OS and PFS and merit clinician’s attention.
PurposeTo investigate whether exposure to occupational levels of organic solvents in the dry cleaning industry is associated with neurotoxic symptoms and visual deficits in the perception of basic visual features such as luminance contrast and colour, higher level processing of global motion and form (Experiment 1), and cognitive function as measured in a visual search task (Experiment 2).MethodsThe Q16 neurotoxic questionnaire, a commonly used measure of neurotoxicity (by the World Health Organization), was administered to assess the neurotoxic status of a group of 33 dry cleaners exposed to occupational levels of organic solvents (OS) and 35 age-matched non dry-cleaners who had never worked in the dry cleaning industry. In Experiment 1, to assess visual function, contrast sensitivity, colour/hue discrimination (Munsell Hue 100 test), global motion and form thresholds were assessed using computerised psychophysical tests. Sensitivity to global motion or form structure was quantified by varying the pattern coherence of global dot motion (GDM) and Glass pattern (oriented dot pairs) respectively (i.e., the percentage of dots/dot pairs that contribute to the perception of global structure). In Experiment 2, a letter visual-search task was used to measure reaction times (as a function of the number of elements: 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 100) in both parallel and serial search conditions.ResultsDry cleaners exposed to organic solvents had significantly higher scores on the Q16 compared to non dry-cleaners indicating that dry cleaners experienced more neurotoxic symptoms on average. The contrast sensitivity function for dry cleaners was significantly lower at all spatial frequencies relative to non dry-cleaners, which is consistent with previous studies. Poorer colour discrimination performance was also noted in dry cleaners than non dry-cleaners, particularly along the blue/yellow axis. In a new finding, we report that global form and motion thresholds for dry cleaners were also significantly higher and almost double than that obtained from non dry-cleaners. However, reaction time performance on both parallel and serial visual search was not different between dry cleaners and non dry-cleaners.ConclusionsExposure to occupational levels of organic solvents is associated with neurotoxicity which is in turn associated with both low level deficits (such as the perception of contrast and discrimination of colour) and high level visual deficits such as the perception of global form and motion, but not visual search performance. The latter finding indicates that the deficits in visual function are unlikely to be due to changes in general cognitive performance.
Background:to analyze the epidemiological behavior of malaria, in relation to armed con-flicts presented on the Pacific coast of Nariño (PCN).Methodology: there was a multi-group ecological study with secondary information sour-ce, the frequency of malaria in the (PCN) population, and the relationship with armed con-flicts in the region, resulting from the country’s internal conflict, from 2003 to 2017, was analyzed.Results: Armed conflict affects the structure of healthcare services for both, the general population and malaria sufferers. The most common affections were to the infrastructure, reduction in the number of healthcare personnel, conservation of vaccines and medicines, access to health care, the inability to do preventive activities and the poor presence of the government in the PCN area. Moreover, the displacement of the population to areas where the vector abounds increases the probability to get sick.Conclusions: This study found an inversely proportional relationship between the fre-quency of malaria cases and armed conflict. This situation could show that maybe the “con-flict” controls malaria. However, it is important to clarify that it could be only masking the reality of the PCN, because the situation that this region was facing stopped the population from accessing the malaria prevention programs and health services, making it difficult to diagnose, treat, and notify the public health surveillance systems. These aspects could con-tribute to a case reduction during the armed conflict period.
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