INTRODUCTION/AIM -Serum albumin concentration (COA) and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) could reflect immunological and nutritional status. We aim to evaluate the impact of COA-NLR score on the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC).
MATERIAL AND METHODS -We perform a retrospective analysis on a database of 637 GC cases, between January 2010 and December 2017. In 396 patients the inclusion criteria for this study were met (non-resectional or palliative surgery were excluded). COA-NLR score was defined as: COA under 35 g/L and NLR value of 2.585 or higherscore 2; one of these conditionsscore 1; and neitherscore 0.
RESULTS -In our population (n=203), 87 patients were classified as score 0, 82 as score 1 and 34 as score 2. COA-NLR score was significantly associated with DFS [HR 1,674; CI95% 1,115 -2,513; p=0,013) and with OS [HR 2,072; CI95% 1,531 -2,805; p<0,001].Kaplan-Meier curves analysis (log-rank test) revealed that a higher score of COA-NLR predicted a worse OS (p<0,001) and DFS (p=0,03). COA-NLR was an independent prognostic factor for OS when adjusted to pStage and age [adjusted HR 1,566; CI95% 1,143; p=0,005].CONCLUSIONS -Preoperative COA-NLR score was significantly associated with worse OS and DFS and, in this way, with worse prognosis on GC patients submitted to curativeintent resectional surgery.
Social media marketing is evolving rapidly and gaining popularity within academia and firms. This chapter highlights the major challenges posed by social media to the pharmaceutical industry, assessing the presence of major pharmaceutical firms on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and characterizing their digital engagement strategies. This study gathered data from the top 20 pharmaceutical companies' official websites, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts and examined variables such as Internet presence, engagement, fans/followers, and network structure. Findings from this study show that not all pharmaceutical firms are present on social media, and some platforms are used more than others. Notably, the digital engagement strategies varied between the analyzed social media platforms and remained similar on the two periods. Results also show that the level of engagement assessed was not associated with firm size. In several firms, the communication was mostly directed to the general public. Depending on the company, country-based communities were found. This work can be of interest to practitioners aiming to compare and assess their digital activity. It could also assist future researchers focusing on pharmaceutical social media marketing activity, since few researchers have analyzed this using more than one social networking site.
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