Despite the availability of new antibiotics and the development of better neurosurgical techniques, therapeutic outcomes of brain abscess showed no significant change when comparing the two study periods, and only the presence of septic shock influenced outcome.

In this prospective phase III trial, afatinib combined with paclitaxel improved progression-free survival and objective response, compared with single-agent chemotherapy, in patients with NSCLC who were clinically enriched for ErbB dependency having failed platinum-based chemotherapy, gefitinib/erlotinib and afatinib monotherapy after initial benefit on each tyrosine kinase inhibitor.

Long-term use of statins has been reported to reduce the risk of death in patients with lung cancer. This study investigated the effect of statin use among patients with lung cancer receiving epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKIs) therapy. A nationwide, population-based case-control study was conducted using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. From January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2012, a total of 1,707 statin and 6,828 non-statin matched lung cancer cohorts with EGFR-TKIs treatment were studied. Statin use was associated with a reduced risk of death (HR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.54–0.62, p < 0.001). In addition, statin use was associated with a significantly longer median progression-free survival (8.3 months, 95% CI: 7.6–8.9 vs. 6.1 months, 95% CI: 6.0–6.4, p < 0.001) and median overall survival (35.5 months, 95% CI: 33.8–38.1 vs. 23.9 months, 95% CI: 23.4–24.7, p < 0.001). In conclusion, statins might potentially enhance the therapeutic effect and increase survival in patients with lung cancer receiving EGFR-TKI therapy.

BackgroundGefitinib, erlotinib and afatinib provide remarkable response rates and progression-free survival compared to platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer harboring epidermal growth factor receptor-activating mutations, and are therefore standard first-line treatment in these patients. However, no study has compared these drugs regarding progression-free survival.Materials and MethodsWe conducted this retrospective study at a single medical center in Taiwan from February 16, 2011 to October 30, 2015. We used the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate survival, and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models to estimate adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals.FindingsOf the 1006 patients diagnosed with stage IIIb and IV non-small cell lung cancer in the study period, 448 (44.5%) had EGFR-activating mutations and received first-line therapy with gefitinib (n = 304, 67.6%), erlotinib (n = 63, 14.3%), or afatinib (n = 81, 18.1%). The median duration of follow-up for progression-free survival was 12.1 months in the gefitinib arm (Interquartile range [IQR]: 5.5–16.5), 11.2 months in the erlotinib arm (IQR: 4.9–16.7), and 10.3 months in the afatinib arm (IQR: 7.0–14.2). Progression-free survival was significantly longer in the patients who received afatinib or erlotinib compared to those who received gefitinib (log-rank test, p < 0.001), and the median progression-free survival was 11.4 months in the gefitinib group.InterpretationAfatinib and erlotinib provide significant benefits in progression-free survival compared to gefitinib in first-line treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung cancers harboring EGFR-activating mutations. Further clinical trials are warranted to validate these findings.

The impact of the SARS outbreak on SARS HCWs was significant in many dimensions of general health. The vitality and mental health status of SARS HCWs 1 month after self-quarantine and off-duty shifts remained inferior to those of the control group.

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Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activation has been demonstrated to have a critical role in tumor angiogenesis. In the present study, the correlation between EGFR mutations and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was investigated in lung cancer cell lines and non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor tissues. VEGF levels were significantly increased in culture medium of lung cancer cells and NSCLC tissues with EGFR mutations (H1650 vs. A549, P=0.0399; H1975 vs. A549, P<0.0001). Stable lung cancer cell lines expressing mutant (exon 19 deletion, E746-A750; exon 21 missense mutation, L858R) and wild-type EGFR genes were established. Significantly increased expression of VEGF and stronger inhibitory effects of gefitinib to VEGF expression were observed in exon 19 deletion stable lung cancer cells (exon 19 deletion vs. wild-type EGFR, P=0.0005). The results of the present study may provide an insight into the association of mutant EGFR and VEGF expression in lung cancer, and may assist with further development of targeted therapy for NSCLC in the future.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Even early-stage patients might encounter disease recurrence with relative high risk. Effective postoperative therapy is based on an accurate assessment of treatment failure after surgery. The aim of this study is to construct a disease-free survival (DFS) prediction model and stratify patients into different risk score groups.A total of 356 pathological stage I patients (7th American Joint Committee on Cancer) who underwent lung resection from January 2005 through June 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Of these patients, 63 patients were eliminated for this study. A total of 293 p-stage I patients were included for further univariate and multivariate analysis. Clinical, surgical, and pathological factors associated with high risk of recurrence were analyzed, including age, gender, smoking status, additional primary malignancy (APM), operation method, histology, visceral pleural invasion, angiolymphatic invasion, tumor necrosis, and tumor size.Of the 293 p-stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients examined, 143 were female and 150 were male, with a mean age of 62.8-years old (range: 25–83-years old). The 5-year DFS and overall survival rates after surgery were 58.9% and 75.3%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, current smoker (hazards ratio [HR]: 1.63), APM (HR: 1.86), tumor size (HR: 1.54, 2.03), nonanatomic resections (HR: 1.81), adenocarcinoma histology (HR: 2.07), visceral pleural invasion (HR: 1.54), and angiolymphatic invasion (HR: 1.53) were found to be associated with a higher risk of tumor recurrence. The final model showed a fair discrimination ability (C-statistic = 0.68). According to the difference risk group, we found patients with intermediate or higher risk group had a higher distal relapse tendency as compared with low risk group (P = 0.016, odds ratio: 3.31, 95% confidence interval: 1.21–9.03).Greater than 30% of disease recurrences occurred after surgery for stage I NSCLC patients. That is why we try to establish an effective DFS predicting model based on clinical, pathological, and surgical covariates. However, our initial results still need to be validated and refined into greater population for better application in clinical use.